Law & Economists: Preview of the CJEU competition docket for the 2017/18 term

Abstract

Courts are the mere instruments of the law, and can will nothing”. And yet, their decisions contribute to shaping the law. To illustrate how the litigation process works and affects the development of competition law, this presentation will preview the Court of Justice of the European Union docket for the upcoming 2017/18 term. Beyond substantive norms, litigation outcomes are shaped by procedural, constitutional and behavioral parameters, which make it far from obvious to distinguish what, of substance or process, is determinative. For EU competition law, this inherent feature of adjudication is amplified by several factors: the technicity of a field guided by economics, an enforcement culture which tends to assimilate cartels to white-collar crime, and the federative nature of the EU institutional setting. After the Intel judgment of September 2017, the new term will start with a variety of cases relating to mergers, collusive behavior and abuse of dominance, in sectors such as e-commerce and pharmaceuticals, arising from national litigation and appeals against decision of the European Commission.