Collusive Practices Inside a Business Network: The Case of Information Exchange
Business networks are systems of business cooperation integrating several firms that have at the same time cooperation and competition relationships, what makes them a relevant phenomenon for Competition Law. This paper analyses whether some agreements between network members may infringe Art. 101.1 TFEU, taking as an example one of the most important features of business networks – the information exchanges inside them. To this aim, it delimits the different kinds information exchanges taking place in horizontal or vertical networks, identifies the most relevant cases for Competition Law, and proposes an adequate assessment methodology that takes into account the existence and features of the network. The paper therefore concludes that competition law rules cannot be automatically applied when the cooperating companies belong to a business network, and that an accurate competitive analysis in these cases has to consider also the existence, aims, interests, and organizational and functional needs of the network
Collusion and Facilitating Practices: A New Perspective in Antitrust Analysis
A systematic revision of the notion of facilitating practices is put forward in this paper, with the purpose of relaxing the long-debated tension between economic and legal perspectives on oligopoly. Whereas the law knows of just one collusive illegal conduct, namely agreements, in economic theory the focus on internal enforcement makes the distinction between agreements and other behaviour resulting in the collusive outcome irrelevant. However, the tension may be relaxed, at least in a number of relevant circumstances, provided the focus of competition law shifts from straightforward co-ordination on market strategies to the firms' concerted efforts in the design and implementation of given organisational arrangements of the oligopolistic industry, to which an anticompetitive object can be attached. The theoretical analysis is extensively supported by examples drawn from some recent decisions of the European Commission and the Italian Competition Authority.
In search of optimum chest radiography techniques.
A nation-wide study of chest radiography in Sweden had previously revealed a large variation in the physical and technical factors involved, in particular the radiation dose. In this study the image quality could not be assessed unambiguously. The aim of the present study was to try to establish a correlation between visual grading of radiographs and physical and technical factors in order to find the optimum chest X-ray system. The physical and technical performance of 24 chest units was evaluated. Radiographs were taken of an anthropomorphic chest phantom supplied with test structures simulating various pathologies. Image quality was assessed by visual grading analysis of the radiographs. The physical and technical parameters of the units rated best were used to exemplify good radiographic practice. The results were in agreement with the recommendations issued by the Commission of the European Communities (CEC). It was also shown that low radiation dose is compatible with high-quality radiographic imaging of the chest.