back
Weiteres Forschungsprojekt
Immaterialgüter- und Wettbewerbsrecht

The Interaction between Competition Law and Corporate Governance: Opening the “black box” of the firm

This project analyses the interplay between competition law and corporate governance. It argues that their interactions should be better taken into account at the policy level. Adopting an economic approach, this research distances from the neoclassical paradigm whereby companies are black boxes.

Last Update: 10.11.15

Initiated in the context of recently completed doctoral studies, this research project analyses the interplay between competition law and corporate governance. For various purposes, competition law considers the firm - or the undertaking - as a ‘black box’: internal relations or mechanisms, including that of corporate governance, are outside of competition law scrutiny. Also, enforcement instruments barely engage with the internal dimension of firms. For example, penalties are typically imposed on companies, while actors within the firm are rarely liable for competition law violations. In spite of an apparent dichotomy between the firm and the market, in which competition law and corporate governance operate respectively, this research explains that there are meaningful points of interaction between the purposes and mechanisms of these two areas of the law. For example, mechanisms of corporate governance, such as remuneration schemes, may produce incentives to restrict competition in markets.

The main contribution of this research lies in ‘opening the black box’ of the firm prior to, during and in prevention of a competition law infringement. Building on these developments, it is argued that relations that are internal to companies matter for the effectiveness of competition law enforcement. In addition, mechanisms of corporate governance - whether these are mechanisms of control or sanctions - should be further relied on and integrated into competition policies. Law makers should therefore take greater account of internal incentives and mechanisms in the design and assessment of policies. On similar grounds, competition authorities should steer companies’ incentives to implement effective corporate compliance mechanisms. The developments are based on the EU, the US and some EU Member States’ jurisdictions when relevant.

Research undertaken at the MPI has mostly focused on work towards PhD publications. Further research on specific topics of greatest relevance has also been undertaken. This includes a publication in World Competition of a book review on the attribution of liability within corporate groups; and a publication an article in CPI Antitrust Chronicle on the topic of corporate compliance. In addition, collaborative work has been undertaken with fellows of the French think tank Droit & Croissance, on the issue of interlocking directorates between competitors (paper submitted in October 2015 to Concurrences) and with an economist from the University of Strasbourg.

Persons

Project Manager

Dr. Florence Thepot

Supervisor

Dr. Peter Picht

Main Areas of Research

Ökonomisierung des Kartellrechts