The Bottom-Up Approach on Competition – A Study on How Institutional, Procedural and Sanctionatory Frameworks Touch on the Very Substance of the EU Antitrust Desideratum

Abstract

One of today’s main policy concerns for the competition community in Brussels is the way in which national institutional, procedural and sanctioning frameworks have the aptitude and are sufficiently harmonized to guarantee a coherent application of the substantive aspects that European Union competition theory and law imply. As competition policies between the still twenty eight Member States have long been harmonized as the legal substantive similarities reflect this matter of fact, it is for the institutional and procedural set-ups to be assessed, in order to perceive the level of enforcement effectiveness that each European Competition Network party is able to deliver. With this regard, domestic instruments and procedures must exist and be interpreted in accordance with the Treaty objectives, so as to avoid any potential vulnerability for the complete achievement of the Union antitrust desideratum.