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Semester 2

Contemporary issues in Competition Law and the Single Market (LAWS10150)

Subject

Law

College

CAHSS

Credits

20

Normal Year Taken

3

Delivery Session Year

2023/2024

Pre-requisites

Visiting students must have completed 3 Law courses at grade B or above, including a course equivalent to European Union Law Ordinary A (LAWS08125). We will only consider University/College level courses. This course is only open to visiting students who are nominated to study with us on a Law exchange agreement. Exchange students outside of Law and study abroad students are not eligible to enrol on this course before teaching begins, with no exceptions, and spaces cannot be guaranteed to those students at any time. **Please see Additional Restrictions**

Course Summary

The course examines three selected issues arising from the interplay between the rules on competition, contained in Articles 101 and 102 TFEU, and the principles governing the single market, especially the freedom of movement of goods and services. It will include: - From the notion of restriction of freedom to trade to the concept of restriction of competition: the evolution in the approaches to the interpretation of Article 101 TFEU in light of the evolution of the single market; - Parallel trade restrictions under the single market principles and under the EU competition rules; - Intellectual property rights and the EU Treaties: from patent exhaustion to abusive refusals to licensereconciling effective competition, free movement of valuable inventions and the genuine incentive to invest and innovate.

Course Description

Indicative teaching programme: **Theme area 1: - The notion of freedom to trade in the context of the EU Founding Treaties: early cases; - From restriction on the freedom to trade to restriction of competition: the earlier case law in the context of the old Article 81 TEC; distinction between restriction by object and restriction by effect;- Toward a more economics based approach to restriction of competition: from the concept of legal and economic context to the counterfactual analysis. **Theme area 2: - Export bans as very serious infringements of EU competition law: in the early cases; - Selective distribution and restrictions on parallel imports; - Toward a justification for blocking unofficial exports? The pharmaceutical cases in the Commission practice and EU Courts case law. **Theme area 3: - Intellectual property and the free market: the doctrine of Community patent exhaustion; - competition law and intellectual property licensing: earlier cases; - from genuine exercise of IP rights to abusive refusals to license: the interplay between effective protection of intellectual property and the application of Articl 102 TFEU to unilateral behaviour; - protecting competition or protecting competitors? Intellectual property, competition law and innovative industries.

Assessment Information

Written Exam 0%, Coursework 100%, Practical Exam 0%

Additional Restrictions

This course cannot be taken alongside European Union Law Ordinary A (LAWS08125). **All 3rd year Law courses are ONLY open to visiting students nominated on an exchange agreement within the School of Law (including Erasmus students on a Law-specific exchange). Exchange students outside of Law, and independent study abroad students, are not eligible to enrol in these courses, with no exceptions.** Please note that 3rd year Law courses are high-demand, meaning that they have a very high number of students wishing to enrol in a very limited number of spaces. These enrolments are managed strictly by the CAHSS Visiting Student Office, in line with the quotas allocated by the department, and all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. It is not appropriate for students to contact the Law School directly to request additional spaces. If there is sufficient space for other visiting students to enrol at the start of the semester (which cannot be guaranteed at all), visiting students must meet the pre-requisites listed above.

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