Sustainability as a Quality Dimension of Competition: Protecting Our Future (Selves)

Volpin, Cristina

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3917881

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…Recently, there are some elements of behaviour change in consumers (Growth from Knowledge 2021). Therefore, Volpin (2020, pp. 9–18) argues that sustainability should be accepted as a quality element because consumers would probably choose a more sustainable product if it is offered at the same price as other identical products.…”

Section: Setting the Scene For Competition Law In Sustainability Debatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Competition Law and Sustainability in the EU: Modelling the Perspectives of National Competition Authorities

Malinauskaitė

Erdem

2023

J of Common Market Studies

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Debates have surged in the EU on how EU competition policy can best support the European Green Deal. In the theoretical and practical scopes, non-economic factors in competition law analysis are problematic due to the difficulty in measuring the concrete benefits of trade-offs. The National Competition Authorities (NCAs) rather than the European Commission (EC) are leading the 'sustainability in competition law' debates, which is the focus of this paper. Therefore, this study reviews the current status quo of all NCAs' positions concerning sustainability-related matters by classifying them into four typologies in terms of their willingness to incorporate sustainability in their assessments. It further identifies four emerging NCAs models which seem to divert from the EC's view.This can be problematic in ensuring the uniform application of competition law. IntroductionSustainability is at the heart of the European Union (EU) with its pressing challenges to decouple economic development from environmental degradation. In light of the European Green Deal (EGD), which is a long-term plan to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, inter alia, Commissioner Vestager (2020) noted that "the time has come to launch a European debate on how EU competition policy can best support the Green Deal". Indeed, the European Commission (EC) signals its intention towards more sustainability-friendly competition practices (European Economic and Social Committee, 2022; European Commission, 2022a) by committing to providing concrete examples of how sustainability objectives can be pursued by different types of cooperation agreements (i.e. joint production/purchasing agreements, standard setting etc.) without restricting competition. The EC in its long-awaited Draft Horizontal Cooperation Agreements Guidelines (Draft Guidelines) incorporated a new chapter on how to self-assess sustainability agreements (European Commission, 2022b). Apart from these draft guidelines and draft of the revised R&D and Specialisation Block Exemption Regulations (known as 'HBERs') (European Commission, 2022c), the EC is not leading this debate, most likely due to limited cases in this field. Instead, the National Competition Authorities (NCAs) have taken a lead for some time now, which is the focus of this paper.

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Section: Setting the Scene For Competition Law In Sustainability Debatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Competition Law and Sustainability in the EU: Modelling the Perspectives of National Competition Authorities

Malinauskaitė

Erdem

2023

J of Common Market Studies

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Greening Innovation, Industrial and Competition Policies

2024

The Macroeconomics of Decarbonisation

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Sustainability as a Quality Dimension of Competition: Protecting Our Future (Selves)

Cited by 2 publications

References 0 publications

Competition Law and Sustainability in the EU: Modelling the Perspectives of National Competition Authorities

Competition Law and Sustainability in the EU: Modelling the Perspectives of National Competition Authorities

Greening Innovation, Industrial and Competition Policies

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