The Substantive Appraisal of Joint Ventures Under the EU Merger Control Regime

This book tackles the complicated economic nature of joint ventures under competition law. Joint ventures are increasingly popular for firms seeking to gain economic advantage but the legal uncertainty that exists from a competition law perspective makes it difficult for firms to predict and adopt the safest policy when structuring and dealing with their joint ventures.

Kadir Bas proposes a new approach with a more coherent and integrated framework for the analysis of joint ventures under the Merger Regulation.

Kadir Bas provides detailed guidance on the most important and relevant issues including: ;

+ whether the EU’s full-functionality criterion is appropriate to identify joint ventures as mergers;

+ how the fact that the parent firms remain competitors in the joint venture’s market, or in other markets, should affect the approach to the creation of a joint venture under the Merger Regulation; and

+ whether a joint venture and its parent(s) should form a single economic unit in respect of an agreement between themselves, and of liability for a competition law infringement

The Substantive Appraisal of Joint Ventures under the EU Merger Control Regime enables the reader to gain a full understanding of the current developments and debates surrounding the competition law approach to joint ventures, and will be of value to practitioners, jurists, policymakers, officials, and academics concerned with European competition law.

Contents:
1 Introduction.

2 Notion, Types and Economic Aspects of Joint Ventures.

3 The Treatment of Full-Function Joint Ventures under the EU Merger Regulation.

4 The Substantive Appraisal of Partial Function Joint Ventures under Article 101 TFEU.

5 The Assessment of Joint Ventures under US Competition Law.

6 A Proposed Approach to Joint Ventures under the EU Merger Control Regime.

7 Conclusion.