Waiting for Convergence: Global Competition Law Counseling In a Changing World
Abstract
Convergence, the goal of having competition laws throughout the world "converge" on a common understanding and enforcement authority, is the holy grail of modern competition law. The good news is that there has been significant convergence around merger analysis and hard core conduct such as price fixing, bid rigging and market allocation. This is primarily driven by the increased use of economic analysis by competition authorities worldwide. The bad news is that in virtually every other area of competition law, there has been increasing divergence. For in-house counsel in global companies, this presents two dilemmas. First, how do you develop a global competition law policy when there are significant differences in competition laws from jurisdiction to jurisdiction? Second, how do you counsel businesses doing business across jurisdictions with potentially different competition law regimes?
