•  
  •  
 

Herbert Ungerer

Abstract

The application of European Community (“EC”) competition law to the telecommunications, media, and information technology sectors must be examined in the general context of the rapid evolution of markets and, therefore, policies in these sectors. The competitive behavior of companies is largely conditioned by the positions companies have taken in response to the rapid changes in market and regulatory conditions. Potentially anticompetitive behavior generated by these rapid changes poses new challenges for EC competition policy. In addition, the required adjustment of the competitive framework and, in particular, the role played by EC competition rules in eliminating existing monopolies, are creating new challenges for EC competition law and policy in these sectors. These two challenges for EC competition law and policy: first, creating a competitive framework and promoting pro-competitive market structures and second, ensuring the competitive behaviour of economic actors, have initiated a new phase in the application of EC competition rules to the telecommunications, media, and information technology sectors and are testing some current EC competition policy concepts in a number of aspects. As a result of these developments, EC competition rules now play a role far beyond their traditional boundaries in the telecommunications, media, and information technology sectors. With the convergence of telecommunications, media, and information technologies, the markets in these sectors have begun to develop rapidly on both sides of the Atlantic and economic actors are now positioning themselves to take advantage of the new opportunities. Recognizing that these developments have been most dramatic in the field of telecommunications and in the new convergent and overlapping fields of communications and media, this Article concentrates on those recent developments that are determining the dynamics of the application of competition law to these sectors.

Download

Share

COinS