Objective This proposal offers interdisciplinary, empirical and comparative research into the legitimacy and accountability problems facing EU competition law. EU competition law has gone through a significant reform process orchestrated by the European Commission. The Commission’s overarching goal in this process was to place ‘consumer welfare’ at the centre of the enforcement of competition rules. In contrast to the strong consumer focus in the design of substantive rules, consumers play a very limited role in the process of the making and enforcement of EU competition rules. Firstly, institutions representing consumer/citizen interests, such as the European Parliament and civil society, have been largely absent in the process leading to reforms. Secondly, the reforms increased economic technicality and the Commission’s administrative discretion in the enforcement of competition rules at the expense of judicial and parliamentary oversight. The limited ex ante consumer participation jeopardises the legitimacy of EU competition law, whereas the limited ex post judicial and parliamentary control impedes accountability. The voluminous law and economics literature of competition law focuses almost exclusively on substantive questions, turning a blind eye to legitimacy and accountability problems. Against this background, the proposed project will study the legitimacy and accountability problems in EU competition law and potential solutions for these problems using delegation theory as the main analytical framework. For methodology, the project will use empirical research of the role of consumer organisations and parliamentary committees, legal analysis of judicial review standards, and comparative research of the US antitrust regime that provided the main inspiration for the reform agenda. By filling an important gap in the literature, the project will contribute to developing mechanisms for firmly anchoring consumers in the making and enforcement of EU competition rules. Fields of science social scienceseconomics and businesseconomicssocial sciencespolitical sciencespolitical policiescivil societysocial scienceslaw Programme(s) FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) Topic(s) FP7-PEOPLE-2012-CIG - Marie-Curie Action: "Career Integration Grants" Call for proposal FP7-PEOPLE-2012-CIG See other projects for this call Funding Scheme MC-CIG - Support for training and career development of researcher (CIG) Coordinator THE UNIVERSITY OF LIVERPOOL EU contribution € 100 000,00 Address BROWNLOW HILL 765 FOUNDATION BUILDING L69 7ZX Liverpool United Kingdom See on map Region North West (England) Merseyside Liverpool Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Administrative Contact Janette Ryan (Ms.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data
