Strategic Foresight and EU Competition Law
Keywords:
EU competition law, merger control, new tools, efficiencies, priority-setting, remedies, standard of proof, strategic foresightAbstract
Competition law wants to protect competition in the long term to the ultimate benefit of consumers. This requires thinking about and shaping the markets of tomorrow. Strategic foresight represents a powerful tool at the disposal of competition authorities that need to engage in prospective analyses, set priorities in line with their long-term strategic goals and devise pertinent soft law guidance for future enforcement. But what is strategic foresight? What are its limits, and how could it be incorporated into competition law and policy? In this primer on strategic foresight and European Union (EU) competition law, we sketch areas of competition law that could benefit from incorporating strategic foresight, while also setting out the related challenges, including satisfying the standard of proof and allocating limited resources.
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