Workshop for the Caribbean Court of Justice – Trinidad and Tobago Februrary 2016
All eight judges of the Caribbean Court of Justice attended a one-day workshop on European Union Competition Law. The event is aimed at facilitating a better understanding of how the EU competition law evolved from Article 81 and 82 in the 1990s to Article 101 and 102 of the current EU Treaty, as well as the substantive interpretations of European competition law that have changed as a result from the passage from Article 81 and 82 to Article 101 and 102.
Professor Frederic Jenny, a professor of economics at the ESSEC Foundation, Director of International Relations at the same institution and Co-Director of the European Center for Law and Economics, conducted the workshop. Professor Jenny analyzed the main features of the EU competition law system and also gave a presentation on the various aspects of the trend toward a more economic approach to competition law which has been an important feature of the last 20 years. This presentation also placed into perspective developments with respect to the vertical agreements, mergers and abuse of dominance.
The judges were also given a presentation on the European Advisory Group Report on Competition that was published in 2005 and which advocated for a more economic approach to the treatment of abuse of dominance along with the EC Commission Guidance paper on exclusionary abuses of dominance. Professor Jenny then analyzed the link between those two documents and the consequences of this new approach by the Commission. The features of various economic tests of abuses of dominance were also discussed for the participants to understand how to use the economic approach in Article 102 cases.
Finally, Professor Jenny discussed the leading cases on abuse of dominance and pointed out how the Commission used “a more economic approach” in these cases despite the Court of Justice expressing reservation about the Commission’s change of perspective and deciding to pursue to a largely formalistic approach instead. Professor Jenny also examined the European Doctrine to understand the legal reasons why the EU Court of Justice was resistant to changes in its formalistic approach.
The workshop was part of the EU funded project Capacity Building Within the Caribbean Forum of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (CARIFORUM) in the Areas of Competition, Public Procurement, and Customs and Trade Facilitation in support of the Implementation of the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) being implemented by Equinoccio Consortium.