Merger control regimes in emerging economies : a case study on Brazil and Argentina

Defence Date: 05 March 2010Examining Board: Prof. Heike Schweitzer, European University Institute, Law Department (Supervisor); Prof. Giuliano Amato, European University Institute, Law Department; Prof. Frédéric Jenny, ESSEC Business School, Paris; Juan Antonio Rivière y Matí, European Commission, BrusselsPDF of thesis uploaded from the Library digital archive of EUI PhD thesesThe dissertation discusses the development of competition law in the emerging economies. In particular, the research focuses on the systems of merger control, taking Brazil and Argentina as case studies. The core subjects discussed in the dissertation concern the institutional issues undermining the enforcement of competition law in the emerging economies, the features that a system of merger control should have in an emerging economy, and the problems faced by the competition authorities of the emerging economies when they have to review multi-jurisdictional concentrations. Brazil and Argentina have been selected as case studies due to the fact that they have an enforcement record of a system of merger control of ten and fifteen years respectively. Moreover, the number of cross-border competition law cases involving Brazil and Argentina has recently increased, due to the strong trade links that these countries have established within Mercosur. From a methodological point of view, the research is based on the analysis of the Brazilian and Argentinean legislations in the field of competition law, as well as the main merger decisions adopted by the competition authorities and the judgements held by the courts of these countries. In addition, the empirical analysis is based on the interviews conducted by the author between April and July 2008 in Buenos Aires, Brasília and São Paulo with competition lawyers and officers of the competition authorities of these countries. In the final chapter of the thesis the findings concerning Brazil and Argentina have been discussed against the background of the literature concerning the topic of competition law in the emerging economies. The overall objective of the research was to identify a number of policy lessons applicable to other emerging economies which have recently introduced a system of merger control at the internal level