Legal Skills: Competition Law and How to Comply with It

Course Overview

Competition law seems never to stand still, making compliance difficult to acheive. The Competition Act 1998 made radical changes to domestic competition law, the Enterprise Act 2002 made compliance still more important with the introduction of criminal sanctions, and in Regulation 1/2003 the European Community competition system has thrown a greater burden on business to assess their own activities. This course provides the basic information about the substantive rules of competition, with a particular eye on the steps that have to be taken to minimise the chances of breaching them.

Audience

Anybody that needs to understand EC and UK Competition Law

Course Outline

The competition law system

• The EC Treaty Articles 81 and 82
• The Competition Act 1998
• Merger control, monopolies and market investigations - the Enterprise Act

Restrictive agreements

• Prohibition
• Exemptions

Dominant position

• Recognising dominance
• Abuse of a dominant position

Investigation and dealing with authorities

Enforcement of competition rules

The cartel offence

Third party claims

Institutions

• The European Commission
• The Office of Fair Trading
• The Competition Commission and the Competition Appeal Tribunal

Compliance

• Review of competition problems
• Compliance policy
• Training
• Mitigating penalties

Legal Skills: Competition Law and How to Comply with It / CM030605