Competition Cases (Car Glass Producers and Banana Cartel Cases)

Competition Cases (Car Glass Producers and Banana Cartel Cases)

Introduction

Competition law of EU is a flexible instrument that would be applied to all the businesses for maintaining healthy competition. The businesses should follow such practices and procedures that would be in favor of public interest. Competition law of EU is based on four principal Acts of Parliament that deals with separate features related to competition policy. The four principal acts of parliament are Competition Act 1980, Resale Trade Practices Act 1976, Fair Trading Act 1973 and Resale Prices Act 1976. Fair Trading Act 1973 is an act that was introduced for dealing with the abuses of monopoly power and mergers in a market. Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1976 was introduced for dealing with agreements that stops the companies or persons from freely competing with each other. The anti-competitive practices that might be found in specific companies are managed under the Competition Act 1980.

The Resale Prices Act 1976 was also an important act that was introduced under Competition law of EU to impose minimum prices of goods at which the consumers will be purchasing them from the marketplace. The competition law also supports in investigation, recommendation of suitable remedies, judging the merits of the case along with monitoring and deciding which remedies should be used. The Monopolies and Mergers Commission, Director General of Fair Trading, Restrictive Practices Court and the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry are some of the responsible principal bodies that are responsible for enforcement of fair competition law in European Union countries.

In the recent years, the European competition policy and law has changed radically in the recent year. Promotion of competition and protection of consumer interests are the most important factors that need to be managed by implementing competition law on the businesses. The administrative procedures, policies, rules and regulations set by the companies should be according to the Article 101-109. Article 101 that was previously known as Article 81 was established by the European Union for competition law regime. Article 101-109 stops the anti-competitive agreements that were found in the cases of Car Glass Producers and Banana Cartel. Article 109 stops the companies like Banana Cartel and Car Glass Producers from abusing the dominant market position of any other company existing in any particular industry. Saint-Gobain, Pilkington, Soliver and Asahi were the Car Glass Producers and Pacific Fruit groups and Chiquita groups were the fruit importers and seller groups who were involved in banana cartel case.

Discussion

The competition law of EU maintains and encourages healthy competition in the marketplace by imposing anti-competition practices that prohibits the business players from getting involved in any activity that could violate the terms and conditions enclosed in competition law. There are three main elements found in the competition law. First element is the prohibition of any practice that stops free trade and encourages competition among the competing companies. Second element is ban on abusive behavior that could be used by any ...