ABSTRACT

I deal in this lecture with one aspect of pro-competition legislation-countering abuse of monopoly power held by a single, or few, interests. This choice is in part because the other main area of the legislation-countering collective monopoly power-has been a central concern of UK legislation since the original Monopolies and Restrictive Practices Commission (now MMC) focused on it in the early 1950s. That area is rather easily aligned with European Commission procedures, a motive which has strongly influenced discussions on current reform. But it is mostly because, after all the brave words of the November 1992 Green Paper on Abuse of Monopoly Power, which I will call AMP, there is a good question of whether a mouse has appeared-namely the new measures announced by Mr Hamilton in April this year.