Dr Pablo Ibanez Colomo NAB7.18

This course is available on the MSc in Regulation, MSc in Regulation (Research), Master of Laws and Master of Laws (extended part-time study). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course will be relevant to the following LLM specialisms: Competition, Innovation and Trade; Corporate and/or Commercial Law; European Law; International Business Law.

This course is capped at 30 students. Students must apply through Graduate Course Choice on LSEforYou.

Prior knowledge of Competition Law is desirable, but not essential.

This module addresses some of the most topical and intellectually challenging aspects of contemporary Competition Law. The emphasis will be put on EU Competition Law, but developments from other jurisdictions, and in particular from the US, are discussed where relevant. This module examines, first, how increased reliance on economic analysis in the past two decades has transformed the discipline. This is probably nowhere as apparent as in the law applying to unilateral conduct; and in the field of vertical restraints. The module also covers some of the major substantive developments in the field, and in particular the application of the law in high-technology markets and in recently liberalised industries.

Topics include the following:
• Article 102 TFEU: case law and Guidance
• Vertical restraints
     o Agreements restricting parallel trade: past and future
     o Online distribution and EU Competition Law

• Competition Law in High-Technology Markets
     o Standard-setting and Competition Law o Competition Law and the  Licensing of Technology
     o Search Engines and Competition Law: EU and US
     o Competition Law and Innovation

• Competition Law and Sector-Specific Regulation
     o The application of EU Competition Law to network industries
     o The interface between Competition Law and Sector-Specific Regulation:  EU and US solutions compared

20 hours of seminars in the LT. 4 hours of seminars in the ST.

All students are expected to produce one 2,000 word formative essay during the course.

Whish, Competition Law (7th edn, 2012); Jones & Sufrin, EC Competition Law: Cases and Materials (4th ed, 2010); Geradin & Elhauge, Global Competition Law and Economics (2nd edn, 2011); Hovenkamp, The Antitrust Enterprise (2005).

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.