Public EU competition law enforcement in small ‘newer’ Member States: addressing the challenges

Abstract

The decentralised nature of Regulation 1/2003 meant that all Member States of the EU have an obligation to enforce EU competition law in addition to their domestic equivalent once the criterion of ‘the Effect on Interstate Trade between the Member States’ is triggered. While larger Member States are better equipped to deal with supranational cases, smaller Member States in terms of their limited resources and lack of experience may struggle. Unfortunately, the academic literature on small countries in the EU is scarce and fragmented. Filing the gap in the literature, this paper will argue that ‘smallness’ in competition law does matter, as small Member States are more exposed to the enforcement of the EU competition provisions. Given the obligation imposed by Regulation 1/2003, the paper will further explore the challenges faced by the National Competition Authorities (the NCAs) of small Member States from the post-2004 accession, namely Croatia, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovenia and Slovakia in their enforcement of EU competition law.