Abstract

Over the years, regulators have sought to improve the effectiveness of both private and public competition law enforcement. In EU competition law, recent debates have concerned damages actions for competition law violations and the empowerment of national competition authorities. These debates are often premised on a clear dichotomy between public and private competition law enforcement, each pursuing a distinct set of aims. This article employs a novel holistic approach, which is informed by the theories of responsive regulation and restorative justice, and argues in favour of a ‘responsive’ remodelling of competition law enforcement. Such a ‘responsive’ remodelling advocates flexibility in enforcement mechanisms, with the consensual participation of the affected stakeholders and the adoption of remedies to restore the inflicted harm. The article discusses the current system and its respective aims and problems, and highlights an emerging hybridisation of remedies. Building on this emerging practice, it then constructs the ‘responsive’ remodelling benchmark for effective compliance. It discusses how this benchmark can inform competition law enforcement and it considers its potential to increase compliance, countenance various legitimacy and accountability concerns, increase consumers’ access to markets and bring benefits to the affected parties.

中文翻译：

---

竞争执法的“响应式”重塑

摘要

多年来，监管机构一直在努力提高私人和公共竞争执法的效率。在欧盟竞争法中，最近的辩论涉及违反竞争法的损害赔偿诉讼和国家竞争主管机构的授权。这些辩论通常以公共和私人竞争执法之间明确的二分法为前提，每一个都追求一套明确的目标。本文采用了一种新颖的整体方法，该方法以响应性法规和恢复性司法理论为基础，并主张支持竞争性执法的“响应性”重塑。这种“响应式”的重塑提倡在执行机制方面具有灵活性，受影响的利益相关者自愿参与，并采取补救措施以恢复所造成的损害。本文讨论了当前的系统及其各自的目标和问题，并着重介绍了新兴的补救措施混合。在此新兴实践的基础上，它随后构建了“响应式”重塑基准，以实现有效合规。它讨论了该基准如何可以为竞争执法提供信息，并考虑了其可能增加合规性，满足各种合法性和问责制问题，增加消费者进入市场的机会并为受影响的各方带来收益。