Queen Mary, University of London

News

26 October 2009

Maher Dabbah spoke at the Portuguese Competition Authority

Maher Dabbah was invited to deliver a speech at the Portuguese Competition Authority in Lisbon, Portugal on Monday 26 October 2009.

The speech dealt with the extremely important topic of 'The relationship between competition authorities and sectoral regulators: an international-comparative perspective'

In his speech, Maher demonstrated how this topic is one of the most important, yet most difficult and controversial topics we have around. He noted that: 'the debate that was started in the 1990s in particular on how the parameters in this relationship should be set has never been settled; in many respects, the debate has even become more heated'.

Maher shed some fresh light on the topic and presented an international-comparative perspective on this important relationship. Among the issues he considered in his speech were: the differences and similarities between the instruments of competition law and special sectoral regulation; areas of potential overlap and conflict between competition enforcement and access, economic, and technical regulation; situations of concurrency between competition authorities and sectoral regulators and the exact role a competition authority should perform in this context, be that an enforcement, a supervisory or an advocacy function; the different 'options' or 'models' which may be adopted by countries (and their competition authorities) when determining the question of sectoral regulation and the application of competition law in the sectors; and the role of government in sectoral regulation.

Specific reference was made throughout the speech to detailed examples from practice taken from different regimes around the world. In doing so, the speech sought to place the topic in its proper (wider) context of institutional cultures, the socio-economic environment prevailing in countries and the public policy choices made by governments and public authorities (including competition authorities) more specifically.

Maher concluded his speech with a set of reflections and recommendations which would be useful in understanding the manner in which a competition authority should design its policy approach to the topic in order to respond effectively to changes in time and in the economic reality of the sectors.