International Policies on Competition Law

This course starts by explaining the objectives of the European union competition policy, the European union anti trust policy and the European union corporate leniency program. You will learn about articles in terms of vertical and horizontal agreements. You will also learn about the concept of anticompetitive agreement and the abuse of dominant position.

The course then explains the assessment of intellectual property and licensing agreements. You will learn about the concept of the exceptional circumstance test and doctrine. You will learn how parties make agreements capable of reducing competition in the market and why these agreements are termed "anticompetitive". You will also learn about instances of anticompetitive agreements, and how these instances were handled by the European union. 

Finally, the course explains the connection between intellectual property and competition rule in the European union. You will learn about the new competition rules for the assessment of technology transfer agreements. You will also learn about the negative effects of restrictive licence agreements, and how policies have been put in place to reduce inter-technology competition between companies operating in a technology market.