The Italian upper administrative court (“Consiglio di Stato”) ruled that the Autorità per le garanzie nelle comunicazioni (“AgCom” – the Italian Regulatory Authority for electronic communications) is not bound to provide a rigorous justification when issuing decisions not compliant with European Commission’s comments.
This judgment is of general interest since, on the basis of a formalistic reasoning, it does not pay adequate attention to the role played by the European Commission in electronic communications’ regulatory proceedings at national level.
Under the European regulatory framework (and the multilevel governance system established therein), comments from the European Commission are the main pillar of the horizontal coordination system between the European level and the national level, aimed at creating a competitive common market for electronic communications.
The contract is the main natural and legal instrument of the competitive market. It seems foreign to the regulatory system which, close to the "regulation" (texts) seems more express itself in administrative unilateral acts.
But this division is fading because the contract is an effective tool because it makes gained acceptance recipient of the norm, becoming the preferred instrument of public policy. The Regulator will use it the more so as on the one hand by the contract operators bring him information and on the other hand, operators have the power to disobey him. That is why the contract is a major figure in the Regulatory system.
The self-regulation mechanism goes further, since the Regulatory system itself is built on contractual commitments, exempting exogenous rules and regulator.
Passenger transport markets in Europe have been, and continue to be, liberalised across jurisdictions and sectors.
Since July 2015, passenger coach operators in France have been allowed to operate without regulation on longer routes (over 100km). For shorter routes, ARAFER, the French regulator for rail and roads, will test whether the coach service is likely to threaten the viability of the public rail service offered by SNCF on the same route. What changes could this reform bring, and how might the economic test be applied?
This article provides an economic perspective on the role played by
competition policy in the development of competition in various
transport sectors. After a brief reminder of some economic features that
are shared by different transport modes, it mainly examines the
principles and practical underpinnings of merger control as it is
implemented in the present context of rapid consolidation in some
transport sectors. Thereby, it stresses some potential shortcomings of
the traditional merger regula tion approach in the particular context of
transportation services, pointing to an excessive attention paid to
potential competition issues on overly narrow relevant markets while
largely ignoring global efficiency-enhancing effects of mergers and
alliances.
ITALIAN
Articolo: Trasporti, concorrenza e politica in material di concorrenza.
Questo articolo delinea una prospettiva economica del ruolo della politica in materia di concorrenza nello sviluppo della libera concorrenza in vari settori dei trasporti. Dopo un breve richiamo ad alcuni aspetti economici, comuni a diversi tipi di trasporto, l’articolo passa in esame i principi e le pratiche fondamentali del controllo delle concentrazione cosi come applicato nell’attuale contesto di consolidamento di alcuni settori dell’industria dei trasporti. Tuttavia, l’articolo mette in rilievo ugualmente alcune carenze potenziali di un approccio classico della regolazione delle concentrazioni nello specifico settore dei trasporti, tra cui l’eccessiva attenzione data alle questioni di concorrenza potenziale su mercati di dimensioni ridotte e la noncuranza generalizzata degli effetti di alleanze e fusioni in materia di efficacia e di progresso.
SPANISH
Artículo: Transporte, competencia y política competitiva
Este artículo da una perspectiva económica sobre el rol jugador por la política de la competencia y el desarrollo de la competencia en varios sectores de transporte. Después de un breve recordatorio sobre las características económicas compartidas por diferentes modales de transporte, examina principalmente los principios y detalles prácticos de la implementación de control de uniones en el contexto presente de consolidación rápida en algunos sectores de transporte. El artículo pone énfasis algunos de los defectos potenciales del la regulación tradicional de uniones, particularmente en el contexto de los servicios de transporte, indicando un enfoque excesivo a cuestiones de competencia potencial en mercados demasiado estrechos y a la vez ignorando los efectos del mejoramiento de eficacia global de las uniones y las alianzas.
PORTUGUESE
Artigo: Transporte, concorrência e política concorrencial
Este artigo fornece uma perspectiva econômica sobre o papel exercido pela política concorrencial no desenvolvimento da concorrência em diversos setores de transporte. Após uma breve retomada de conceitos econômicos compartilhados por modos de transporte diferentes, ele examina principalmente os princípios e os problemas práticos do controle como implementado no contexto presente de rápida consolidação em alguns setores de transporte. Assim, ele sublinha alguns potenciais conflitos no enfoque da regulação tradicional no contexto particular de serviços de transporte, apontando para uma atenção excessiva concedida para problemas de concorrência potencial em muito relevantes mercados enquanto são amplamente ignorados os efeitos na eficiência global.
Transporte aéreo – Avião – Aeroporto – Aliança – Comportamento anti-concorrencial – Falência – Concorrência – Autoridade de concorrência – Política de concorrência – Concentração – Contrato – Subsídios cruzados – Economia de escala – Eficiência – Ganho de eficiência – Barreiras de entrada – Equilíbrio – Comissão Europeia – Custo fixo – França – Londres – Incentivo – Operador incumbente – Infraestrutura – Interconexão – Investimento – Monopólio legal – Liberalização – Rede de longa distância – Estrutura de mercado – Controle – Firma de multiprodução – Rede – Mercado oligopolístico – Concorrência potencial – Preço – Elasticidade de preço – Trilho – Transporte por trilhos – Mercado relevante – Transporte rodoviário – Segmento – Serviço – Tempo – Transporte – Reino Unido – Comunidade urbana – Veículo.*
* Em The Journal of Regulation, estas palavras-chave são fornecidas pelo Editor e não pelo Autor.
As in all systems of telecommunications in the world backed to a liberalized market, the one organized in India foresees the granting of licences to operators. It is the Government that allocates licenses, but it is the regulator (the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India - TRAI) that provides the financial terms to set the price of the licenses. On May, 2 2012, the regulator has proposed to use the auction method. The association of operators protested. This method led indeed generally priced higher than other methods of pricing of licenses assigned.
In The Journal of Regulation the summaries’ translation are done by the Editors and not by the authors
ENGLISH
The European Commission issued a reasoned opinion on November 24th, 2011, to France and the Czech Republic demanding that those countries modify their legislation in order to comply with European regulation on renewable energies. If the modifications are not implemented in the upcoming two months, the Commission will open a case before the European Court of Justice.
FRENCH
La Commission européennea émis unavis motivéle 24 Novembre2011,concernantla Franceet la République tchèque,exigeant queces paysmodifientleur législationafin de se conformerà la réglementationeuropéennesur les énergies renouvelables.Si les modificationsne sont pasmises en œuvre dansles deuxprochainsmois, la Commissionouvrira uneprocédure devant la Courde justice de l’Union européenne
ITALIAN
Il 24 novembre 2011, la Commissione europea ha emesso una raccomandazione con cui richiede alla Francia ed alla Repubblica Ceca di modificare le proprie legislazioni in modo tale da conformarle alla regolamentazione europea in materia di energia rinnovabile. Se le modifiche non saranno introdotte entro i prossimi due mesi, la Commissione adirà la Corte di Giustizia Europea.
On May 4, 2012, Ofcom announced the award of four new community radio licences for services in the south west of England.
Community raido service are provided on a not-profit basis focusing on the delivery of specific social benefits tot a particular geographical community or a community of interest.
The new awards mean that 251 community radio licences have been awordes for four services in Cornwall and Devon.
Some radio services are about health thematics or weillbeing and lifestyle topics, others provide community radio services, for example to villages.
The nature of virtual currency remains uncertain. In any case, the object is very attractive, in particular because its nature, presented as "new", implies that its handling is not regulated.
This allows, in particular for individuals or start up, to issue "tokens" to offer them in exchange of funds, by the "initial coin offerings (ICOs)" technic, tokens acquired by investors, without being banking institutions, or borrowing money , nor issuing capital securities.
Operators demand that this behavior be recognized in its novelty and be recognized as being governed only by the contract and the general principles of loyalty, commitment and information, because what it is not prohibited is permitted while what is not regulated is freely organized by the parties who consent to it.
Online gambling operators must receive the approval of The Autorité française de régulation des jeux en ligne (ARJEL -The French Online Gaming Regulatory Authority) before exercising. It is a priori control that is to say, ex ante, specific of the regulation mechanism. But litigation were born about updates of licensed software, the update requiring a new legal approval. Regulatory authority has just notify to the European Commission on April 15, 2012 the new system that it implements: the authorised operator may modify the software originally certified and will merely notify the Regulatory authority. If it considers it necessary, the Regulatory authority may require that the operator requests a new registration. The system becomes a "semi-ex-post" supervision .
The case of the Libor is already designated as case which will constitute a turning point in the banking regulation. Indeed, even beyond the astronomical amounts of fines, penalties and damages that were intended to be pronounced, it’ s the declarative system, that is to say the part of self-regulation, the system which is in question. All banks are implicated. Further investigation for agreement is also open. More importantly, it would appear that the Bank of England, Central Bank, knew as early as 2008, has not reacted, or has covered, or even may have been complicit in banks. Therefore, the terrible question appears: "who rely?".
