An Analytical Review of the Choices / Priorities made by Ireland's Competition Authority / Competition and Consumer Protection Commission 1991-2016

Abstract

This paper considers some of the choices and priorities made by Ireland's Competition Authority / Competition and Consumer Protection Commission ("CCPC') in the years 1991-2016. It is therefore a useful insight into the privatization choices made by a mature competition system during a quarter of a century which is a sufficient time horizon to give reliable results. Moreover, Ireland is an interesting economy to study for various reasons including its open nature, Common Law background, membership of the European Union, unusual system of the competition agency concentrating on investigations while findings of guilt and the imposition of penalties are left to the courts. The CCPC is also worth examining because it shows the interaction of competition law and consumer protection law in setting priorities. The paper makes a number of observations including that privatization is essential for agencies but it is necessarily a vague and imprecise process which must be localized to be useful. The paper also observes that failures by an agency (e.g., losing a case in court) is not entirely unwelcome because complete success would indicate that only "safe" cases were being instituted. The paper also raises the question of whether privatization should be revealed at all. The paper studies the nature and level of interference in the setting of priorities in Ireland and finds that the Irish agency has been largely free of external influences but has itself influenced externally (e.g., in proposing legislative changes). The Irish agency's preference for prioritizing cartels is contrasted with the preference of private plaintiffs for abuse of dominance cases. The paper recognizes that prioritization on specific issues evolves over time but the fundamental priorities remain constant.

Keywords: Competition Law, Antitrust Law, Administration of Competition Law, Prioritization by competition agencies, Public enforcement of competition law, Private enforcement of competition law

JEL Classification: K00, K10, K21, K42