One of the main purposes of european competition policy is to promote the interests of consumers, that is, to guarantee the economic freedom existing already in the proper rules of socio-economic space development framework of the European Union (EU). Therefore, in 2002, a competition rules reform occurred, which resulted in the adoption of a new basic Regulation by the Council. This Regulation initiates a new era of antitrust enforcement in the European Union, involving National Competition Authorities (NCAs) and national courts more directly in the application of the Treaty competition rules. This reform is another way founded by the Commission to promote the consumers interests.
These and other considerations can be consulted in ?XXXII European Union Report on competition policy 2002?. Special attention to the fallowing matters:
- Sector-based competition developments ? postal services: presentation of the main changes introduced by the adoption of the New Postal Directive 2002/39/EC.
- Sector-based competition developments ? telecommunications: on 14 February 2002 a new regulatory framework for electronic communication networks and services was adopted. This new legislative package aims to underline the new definition of the notion of ?significant market power?(SMP), as well as the obligation on National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) to conduct a proper market analysis and finally the expected collaboration with National Competition Authorities (NCAs).
- Closure of sector enquiry into leased lines: the Commission decided to close the leased line sector enquiry it had launched in 1999. The conclusions of the first phase of the enquiry had emphasised high prices and diverging pricing policies in the EU. In November 2000, the Competition Directorate-General investigated this situation in five countries ? Belgium, Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain. In 2002, the Commission registered a considerable decrease in leased line prices across the EU. The Competition D.G. will continue to closely monitor the situation in Portugal and Greece.
- Information Society: the Commission continued to work towards an open and competitive environment for the development of the Internet and e-commerce in EU, underlining the ?eEurope 2005? action plan. Nevertheless the competition policy concerns remain in respect of telecommunications infrastructure (broadband and narrowband) used for Internet traffic. On the other hand competition concerns were registered in the area of Internet governance, specifically on the registry operators of top-level domain names, underlining the fact that the Commission has no doubts that the EU competition rules apply to the domain name system.
See:
XXXII Commission Report on competition policy - 2002*
Competition Directorate-General of the European Commissionhttp://europa.eu.int/comm/competition/index_en.html
Competition Directorate-General of the European Commission newsletter, Spring 2003*
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* This information belongs to the European Commission
