Showing archive for: “Comparative & Global Administrative Law”
Africa’s Imitation Game in Competition Law
African competition authorities are importing the wrong model of competition enforcement—and doing so without the institutional capacity to make even the right model work. Across the continent, regulators are reaching for Europe’s most ambitious digital frameworks. The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Competition and Consumer Commission (CCC) recently overhauled its regime to ... Africa’s Imitation Game in Competition Law
The Price of Watching Prices: Italy’s Slow Slide from Markets to Management
If regulators could make markets behave simply by watching them more closely, Italy would be about to crack the code. Instead, the Italian government’s latest energy measures suggest something else: when prices rise, the instinct is not just to subsidize costs, but to supervise how those costs flow through the system—down to how firms bid, ... The Price of Watching Prices: Italy’s Slow Slide from Markets to Management
The View from Singapore: A TOTM Q&A with Alvin Koh
Alvin, can you briefly describe your professional background? In my role as chief executive of the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCS), I oversee the administration and enforcement of Singapore’s competition, consumer protection, and legal metrology laws to ensure Singapore’s markets remain competitive and consumers are protected from unfair trading practices. This is my ... The View from Singapore: A TOTM Q&A with Alvin Koh
A Fistful of Discretion: The UK’s DMCC After Two Years
When Sergio Leone shot “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” in 1966, he refused to hand the audience a clean moral. The “Good” wasn’t really good. The “Bad” looked almost restrained next to the Civil War’s industrial-scale carnage. And the “Ugly” drew your sympathy—even as you questioned why. Two years into the Competition and ... A Fistful of Discretion: The UK’s DMCC After Two Years
Crisis Opportunism: Germany’s Turn to Antitrust Without Limits
Geopolitical shocks rarely just move markets. They move policy—and not always in good ways. Fuel prices are climbing sharply across Europe following military escalation in the Middle East and disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. The political demand for “something to be done” can be nearly irresistible. In Germany, several major political groups have ... Crisis Opportunism: Germany’s Turn to Antitrust Without Limits
Germany’s War on the Bargain
Germany’s competition watchdog has turned a familiar retail feature into an antitrust offense. In a recent decision, the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) effectively faulted Amazon for showing shoppers only “price-competitive” offers on its German site. At first glance, the case looks narrow—a dispute over the mechanics of the “Buy Box,” reminiscent of European actions ... Germany’s War on the Bargain
The View from Africa: A TOTM Q&A with Willard Mwemba
Willard, can you tell us a bit about yourself? I began my career at the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission in Zambia, formerly called the Zambia Competition Commission, starting as a “humble trainee economist.” I quickly rose through the ranks, becoming a senior economist and then the director of mergers and monopolies—achieving this progression in ... The View from Africa: A TOTM Q&A with Willard Mwemba
Why Europe Can’t Kill the Cookie Banner
“Europe is so back. No more cookie banners.” Not quite. Cookie banners are here to stay. They endure as an annoying but telling symbol of a deeper problem: Europe’s political class still lacks the appetite for the hard choices reform requires. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was right in this year’s State of ... Why Europe Can’t Kill the Cookie Banner
Red Cards for the Referees: EU Competition Law Takes on Football’s Gatekeepers
“A battle for the soul of European football.” That was how the Financial Times characterized the Super League crisis of April 2021, when 12 of Europe’s wealthiest football clubs announced their intention to break away from the existing competition structure and form a closed league of their own. The backlash was immediate: fan protests erupted ... Red Cards for the Referees: EU Competition Law Takes on Football’s Gatekeepers
Two Faces of Inefficiency in European Competition Law
Whatever else one might want to say of the European Commission in 2025, they cannot be accused of idleness. Spurred by leadership change and mounting evidence of Europe’s economic malaise, the Commission has been working hard to update its competition toolbox. Calls for evidence have been issued across multiple areas, from guidance on technology-transfer agreements ... Two Faces of Inefficiency in European Competition Law
Beyond the Bark: Brazil’s Prudent Path in Digital Regulation
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva recently endorsed giving the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) much more power to regulate Big Tech, even as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to impose tariffs “on countries whose taxes, legislation and regulations target US big tech companies such as Google, Meta, Amazon and Apple.” Trump’s declaration ... Beyond the Bark: Brazil’s Prudent Path in Digital Regulation
Paying Whistleblowers to Take Down Cartels
Cartel collusion among competitors is widely seen as the “supreme evil of antitrust,” and for more than three decades, competition-law enforcers in the United States and abroad have cooperated to ferret out cartel activity. Beginning in the 1990s, major jurisdictions started to emphasize highly effective “leniency” agreements to get cartel members to inform on their ... Paying Whistleblowers to Take Down Cartels
