Last updated: 26 February 2009
EU Competition Project 2005-2007
Consumers International managed the EU Competition Project on competition in collaboration with partner organisations from 14 European Union (EU) countries.
The project spanned two years and was supported by a grant from the European Union DG SANCO and other sources.
The final report, Consumers and Competition (also avaible in French and Spanish), sets out the findings of the project.
It reveals the effect of competition policy on consumers in 14 EU member states and finds that there are significant variations in national competition laws across Europe.
The project also produced a second report, Competition law and the consumer: A legislative survey of fourteen European Competition Law Regimes. This report gives an insight into the national competition regimes of the 14 countries that participated in the collaborative project.
Download the report
Download the training manual
Consumers and competition
Consumers have a strong interest in effective competition policy and regulation. Rules are needed to control anti-competitive behaviour in all market economies, whatever their mix of private and state enterprise, to ensure lower prices, better choice and quality, and access to essential goods and services.Competition policy and regulation has become even more important in recent years.
The primacy of market forces as the source of consumer welfare has been promoted through deregulation and privatisation. This provides more opportunities for abuse as well as benefit. In addition, surging cross-border mergers and acquisitions have extended opportunities for price and distribution fixing by cartels. It has also led to concerns that the power of transnational corporations (TNCs) threatens market diversity and competition by cramping domestic production, investment and innovation, particularly in developing countries.
Though much of the response to cross-border mergers and acquisitions will be based on the work of national competition authorities, international collaboration is necessary.
Consumers International recognises that some anti-competitive actions by corporations can only be dealt with by common action by two or more - often many - national competition agencies.
There is consensus within the consumer movement that multilateral competition frameworks are vital for dealing with restrictive business practices in the context of advances in global economic integration.
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Consumers and Competition