The European Union's competition authorities are still seen as among the best in the world, despite a series of recent setbacks, a new survey will say tomorrow.
The survey by Global Competition Review, a specialist journal, gives the EU a rating just below that accorded the US, Germany and the UK, and ahead of competition authorities in Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and 16 other jurisdictions.
This is despite a traumatic year in 2002 for Mr Mario Monti, the competition commissioner, when his department suffered three defeats in high-profile court cases over merger decisions and embarked upon a fundamental reorganisation.
But the survey, based on the results of more than 500 questionnaires from business groups, legal departments and others, as well as the participation of competition authorities themselves, also had cautionary words for the EU. It labelled Mr Monti's department, which deals with mergers, price-fixing cartels and government subsidies, as "among the global antitrust leaders".
Respondents said its work was "99 per cent sound" and praised the commission for embracing changes such as deciding to appoint a chief economist and holding internal "devil's advocate" panels to challenge preliminary conclusions in merger cases.
But, despite the commission's defeats last year in the European Court of Justice, some respondents maintained there were still insufficient checks and balances on its decisions. Some complained that "borderline" merger cases were hard to predict, while "the US regime was seen as better at economics and less instinctively interventionist".
Commission officials argue that cases involving borderline issues, such as "vertical integration" of successive parts of the supply chain or "collective dominance" of more than one company, are more difficult to judge.
They also contend the EU is more consistent than the US's politicised approach to competition policy, which means the commission is more interventionist than the Bush administration's relatively laisser-faire approach. - (Financial Times Service)
