About AEI My AEI Support AEI Contact AEI
Home Events Books Short Publications Research Areas Scholars & Fellows


Search


FindAdvanced Search

Browse all short publications by:
- Date
- Subject
- Author
- Type
- Title

SHORT PUBLICATIONS
AEI Newsletter
AEI.org Exclusives
The American
Press Releases
Outlook Series
On the Issues
Papers and Studies
AEI Working Paper Series
Government Testimony
Speeches
Book Reviews
AEI Policy Series
The War on Terror

E-NEWSLETTERS
Enter e-mail:
 

Home >  Short Publications >  Competition Laws in Conflict
Competition Laws in Conflict
Print Mail
Key Points
Posted: Wednesday, May 12, 2004
PRESS RELEASES
AEI Online  (Washington)
Publication Date: May 13, 2004

Competition Laws in Conflict  

  • Globalization has produced massive antitrust policy proliferation. Close to one hundred countries (and some international bodies, such as the European Union) now enforce overlapping and conflicting antitrust laws.
  • Within the United States, the law enforcement function is uneasily divided between the federal government, increasingly aggressive states, and private parties, acting under a mix of federal and state law.
  • A system under which each jurisdiction applies its own competition rules to global transactions will produce grave political conflicts, while raising compliance costs to intolerable levels. High-profile antitrust disputes—from the prosecution of Microsoft in state, national, and international forums to the transatlantic disagreement over the European Union’s merger policy—illustrate the burgeoning difficulties.
  • Policymakers should first concentrate on remedying incontrovertible institutional errors such as antidumping laws, certain sectoral arrangements (such as telecommunications), and export cartel exemptions.
  • Internationally, an antitrust non-discrimination rule, akin to the World Trade Organization’s “national treatment” rule, may merit cautious support.
  • Domestically, an effort to distinguish federal and state responsibilities may require restrictions on the states’ antitrust immunity and their parens patriae enforcement powers (which grant authority to act on behalf of citizens), and an end to federal antitrust jurisdiction over purely in-state activities.
Available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.
Related Links
More about the Book
Press Release about the Book
Media Inquiries:
Veronique Rodman
American Enterprise Institute
 1150 Seventeenth Street, N.W.
Washington, DC  20036
Phone: 202-862-4870
E-mail: VRodman@aei.org


Development Policy Outlook

Environmental Policy Outlook  
In the latest issue of Development Policy Outlook, Megan Davy examines China's emergence in the world market and its effect on Latin America's economic future.


Europe's Coming Demographic Challenge- thumbnail
Europe's Coming Demographic Challenge

The promise of "healthy aging" offers significant opportunities for economic growth and development for Europe in the decades ahead--if governments and citizens are willing to grasp them.