The European Commission's 2006 Guidelines on Antitrust Fines: A Legal and Economic Analysis

Abstract

On 1 September 2006, the European Commission published new Guidelines on the method it will use when setting fines for undertakings that have infringed the competition rules laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty. This paper discusses the questions what the purpose is of guidelines, and how foreseeable the amount of fines should be, and analyses the method set out in the new Guidelines in the light of the Commission's past practice, the case-law of the Community Courts and the theory on optimal fines.

Keywords: antitrust, competition law, fines, law enforcement

JEL Classification: K14, K21, K42, L40, L41