Spring (Exam each semester)

The aim of this course is to introduce students to EU/EEA Competition law. By the end of the course, students should have thorough knowledge of material EU/EEA competition rules and of the interaction between EU and national level for monitoring and surveillance concerning provisions on contra-competitive activities, merger control and abuse of dominant market positions. In addition, students will have knowledge on provisions regulating surveillance and monitoring of competition activities, that is procedures and intervening measures taken by E Commission ("DG Comp") national competition authorities will be achieved. This includes also provisions and procedures for sanctions and remedies both of a private and of a penal nature (prohibitions, penalties and fines, invalid private arrangements, rules on economical liability for infringements).

Competition law addresses law on commercial activities by market transactions which may affect competition within the relevant market as well as measures taken in relation in between market competitors. Competition law has both private law and public law aspects, generally with a strong impact of public surveillance and monitoring regulated by statutes or secondary regulations on EU level as well as on national level.

Competition law regime adopts first of all a legal framework for a market ideology based on the idea that undertakings should compete under common and equal framework conditions, both in the cross border and domestic trade. The idea is that free competition, based on common rules, will enable more effective exploitation of social resources. In a European dimension rules on free competitive cross border trade has a strong link to other inner market rules and principles, such as ban on discrimination on national basis, rules securing the right of free establishment within the EU area and provisions prohibiting trade restrictions and thus enabling the "four free movements" principles for goods, services, persons and capital.

The central subjects in this course are 1) the prohibition on agreements, decisions by associations of undertakings and concerted practices that are restrictive of competition, cf. EC Article 81, 2) the prohibition on abuse by any undertakings having a dominant position in the relevant market, cf. EC Article 82, 3) the rules on merger control, and 4) procedural rules, enforcement and sanctions. Competition law issues are also closely related to other issues that will not be dealt with in this course, such as state aid measures, public procurement law, marketing act and intellectual property rights.

Exam autumn and spring.

Four hour school exam. A - E for passed, F for failed.

Exam language:

• Question paper: English
• Answer paper: English

Support materials allowed during exam:

See section 3-5 of the Supplementary Regulations for Studies at the Faculty of Law at the University of Bergen.

Special regulations about dictionaries:

• According to the Regulations for Studies, one dictionary is permitted support material during the examination. Bilingual dictionaries containing for example both Norwegian-English and English-Norwegian are considered as one dictionary.
• Bilingual dictionaries to/from the same two languages - for example Norwegian-English/English-Norwegian - in two different volumes are also considered as one dictionary (irrespective of publisher or edition).
• Dictionaries as described above cannot be combined with any other types of dictionaries.
• Any kind of combination which makes up more than two physical volumes is forbidden.
• In case a student has a special need for any other combination than the above mentioned, such combination has to be clarified with/approved by the course coordinator minimum two weeks before the exam. Students who have not been granted permission to have a special combination minimum two weeks before the exam will be subject to the usual regulations (Section 3-5) about examination support materials.

Course teacher: Professor Tore Lunde

Administrative contact: elective-courses@jurfa.uib.no