8 Design of Remedies

Subject(s):

Fining Guidelines — Remedies in merger cases

This chapter discusses the design of remedies. Most of the literature on competition law focuses on the identification and analysis of competition problems, not on how to remedy them. The chapter covers structural and behavioural remedies. It sets out structural remedies in merger and conduct cases, drawing on regulatory insights on vertical separation. It then addresses behavioural remedies in merger and conduct cases and sets out the regulatory principles of access and price regulation. This includes discussions of the concept of fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) in intellectual property licensing cases, and of the lessons from behavioural economics, with the Microsoft and Google cases providing useful illustrations. The chapter also deals with the principles of setting fines (including the question of inability to pay fines), and with cost–benefit analysis, which can be applied to specific interventions and to competition regimes as a whole.