ABSTRACT
In contrast to the preceding Chapters, which describe the substantive EU competition rules, this Chapter describes the procedures by which those rules are enforced. Since 1 May 2004, enforcement has been the responsibility of the European Commission, national competition authorities (‘‘NCAs’’) and national courts in close cooperation, under Regulation 1/2003 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty. NCAs can apply both national and EU competition rules, in the context of a European Competition Network (‘‘ECN’’) with the Commission at its hub. This Chapter focuses on enforcement by the Commission, but also provides an overview of enforcement by one NCA, the UK’s Office of Fair Trading (‘‘OFT’’), by way of comparison.
