Book Review: EEC Competition Law: Business Issues and Legal Principles in Common Market Antitrust Cases by U.P. Toepke

EEC competition law can be a strange and baffling creature for an observer familiar only with United States antitrust law. There is a tendency to make very straight-forward comparisons between these two systems. Each system is part of a federal structure of legal regulation which applies to practices capable of affecting trade between member states. In additiona, both the Sherman Act and the Treaty of Rome establish two-part scheme for regulation competition with different standards in judging agreements between firms on the one hand and the actions of monopolists or dominant firms on the other hand. Like sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, articles 85 and 86 of the Rome Treaty are phrased in broad sweeping language with the burden on the judiciary to fill in the details in creating a comprehensive legal regime