Size Matters: Cross-Border Competitive Harm and Non-Major Markets

1:2023 Competition Law Seminar

Size Matters: Cross-Border Competitive Harm and Non-Major Markets 

University of Iceland’s Faculty of Law and Faculty of Business, in collaboration with the Icelandic Competition Authority and Bifröst University’s Department of Law, host the 1st Competition Law Seminar of 2023. 

A special guest and keynote speaker is Prof. Marek Martyniszyn. He is a Professor of Competition Law & Policy at Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland). He specialises in international and cross-borders aspects of competition law and policy, including the limits of extraterritorial jurisdiction and state involvement in anticompetitive practices (including the issue of foreign subsidies). His research has a strong perspective of new competition systems and new agencies, especially those in developing countries and economies in transition. Prof. Martyniszyn is a Non-Governmental Advisor to the International Competition Network (ICN). He has presented his work also on various other fora, including ICN, UNCTAD, COMESA and BRICS. His online profile is available at: http://go.qub.ac.uk/Martyniszyn.

Time: Monday 4 September 2023, 15:00-16:30

Venue: University of Iceland - Veröld – hús Vigdísar, room VHV-007

Program:

Prof. Gylfi Magnússon (University of Iceland) will chair the seminar.

Abstract of the keynote address: 

Size Matters: Cross-Border Competitive Harm and Non-Major Markets

Despite substantial growth in international commerce over the last few decades international community did not develop a way of dealing with transnational anticompetitive activities. Competitive processes are governed predominantly by domestic and sometimes (when in existence and operational) regional laws. This necessitates their extraterritorial application, in appropriate cases, to preserve competitive processes and to protect domestic consumers from competitive harm inflicted from abroad. While extraterritoriality was spearheaded in competition law and became ubiquitous over time, its development and embracing did not make the approach easier and more accessible. The emergence of a variety of cooperative instruments—be it agreements between jurisdictions or virtual networks—while extremely helpful, neither addressed a range of existing legal and practical hindrances, nor enabled to deal with notable power imbalances between the major markets and other systems. The existing challenges of cross-border cases make their pursuit a particularly uphill battle for the latter, often less economically and/or politically affluent. They experience these issues differently, while often—on top of these—operating in a broader context of difficult circumstances and notable capacity constraints. In effect, they are particularly vulnerable to being victims of cross-border competitive harm. This contribution aims to fill an existing gap in our understanding of the position of non-major markets in such situations and to offer a manageable law and policy recommendations on how to navigate this sub-optimal, if not, adverse system of global governance. 

Background outputs:

Marek Martyniszyn, Competitive Harm Crossing Borders Regulatory Gaps and a Way Forward, 17(3) Journal of Competition Law & Economics 686-707 (2021)

Marek Martyniszyn, Developing Countries’ Experience with Extraterritoriality in Competition Law, Report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD/DITC/CPLP/2021/3, December 2021

Marek Martyniszyn, Extraterritoriality in EU Competition Law in NC Rodrigues (ed), Extraterritoriality of EU Economic Law, Springer 2021, 29-57