Competition law

I. Read the text in detail and find out what is good and bad in market competition.

Reading

Warm up

Lesson 4. Competition of companies

I. A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well. (Jeff Bezos)

Do you agree with this saying?How can a firm earn its reputation?

II. Look at this list of brand names and logos and find pairs of competitors.

III. Which company is winning in each pair?

IV. What is competition of companies? How do consumers benefit from competition?

Express your point of view.

Competition law, known in the United States as antitrust law, has three main elements:

• Prohibiting agreements or practices that restrict free trading and competition between businesses.
• Banning abusive behavior by a firm dominating a market, or anti-competitive practices that tend to lead to such a dominant position. Practices controlled in this way may include predatory pricing, tying, refusal to deal, and many others.
• Supervising the mergers and acquisitions of large corporations, including some joint ventures.

Protecting the interests of consumers and ensuring that entrepreneurs have an opportunity to compete in the market economy are often treated as important objectives. Competition law is closely connected with law on deregulation of access to markets, state aids and subsidies, the privatization of state owned assets and the establishment of independent sector regulators. In recent decades, competition law has been viewed as a way to provide better public services. The history of competition law reaches back to the Roman Empire. Since the twentieth century, competition law has become global. The two largest and most influential systems of competition regulation are United States antitrust law and European Community competition law. National and regional competition authorities across the world have formed international support and enforcement networks.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-27