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OECD Journal: Competition Law and Policy

  • Discontinued

This journal draws on the best of the recent work done for and by the OECD Committee on Competition Law and Policy. Its articles provide insight into the thinking a competition law enforcers, and focus on the practical application of competition law and policy. Here’s what Robert Pitofsky, Chairman of the US Federal Trade Commission said about this new journal when it was launched: “Global competition is the wave of the future, and comparative analysis of the laws and practices of various members of the worldwide community of nations is a necessary corollary. This new OECD Journal of Competition Law and Policy, compiled from OECD Round Table discussions, summaries of recent developments, and articles on topics of special interest, will introduce regulators, practitioners, and scholars to different regulatory approaches around the world and will allow us to consider in a more informed way the strengths and weaknesses of our own systems.”

English Also available in: French

Resale below Cost Laws and Regulations

Despite general agreement that consumers benefit from lower prices that are not predatory, several nations have laws against loss leader sales even when they are unlikely to foreclose competition. These laws appear to protect competitors rather than competition. The Competition Committee’s roundtable discussion in October 2005 focused on efforts to reform or remove laws against loss leader sales and efforts to prevent such restrictions from being enacted. The Secretariat background note argued that rules again loss leader sales should be sunsetted because they are likely to harm consumers and protect inefficient competitors, fail to account adequately for pro-competitive business justifications for loss leader sales and detract from economic dynamism and growth. Japan, Germany and France, defended their rules against price competition, although France was in the process of a reform. Members of a second group of countries were working to remove laws against loss leader sales. The nations in a third group with no law against loss leader sales, reported efforts by groups of competitors to have such rules applied either at the national level or at the state/provincial level. Both the consumer and business submissions argued that prohibiting loss leader sales is likely to harm consumers and protect competitors, rather than competition.

English Also available in: French

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