Interplay between the New Competition Tool and Sector-Specific Regulation in the EU: expert study

This paper analyses the relationship among competition law and the various sectoral regulatory regimes making up the EU body of economic regulation, at the systemic, substantive and institutional level. In the light thereof and of experience with comparable tools in other jurisdictions, we make recommendations regarding the interplay between the envisaged New Competition Tool (NCT) and sector-specific regulation. In our opinion, the proposed NCT could easily be integrated in the existing body of EU economic regulation. At the systemic level, the NCT should have a horizontal scope and hence be applicable to regulated sectors, since the NCT could usefully close eventual regulatory gaps. At the substantive level, the NCT should rest on economic knowledge and methodology, in line with existing EU economic regulation, yet without being straitjacketed within specific competition law analysis. At the institutional level, a close transversal cooperation between the Commission (or any authority implementing the NCT) and the relevant NRA(s) is needed at every stage of NCT implementation, if and when the NCT is applied in regulated sectors.