Competition Law and Sustainability in the EU: Modelling the Perspectives of National Competition Authorities

Abstract

Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Debates have surged in the European Union (EU) on how EU competition policy can best support the European Green Deal. In the theoretical and practical aspects, non-economic factors in competition law analysis are problematic due to the difficulty in measuring the concrete benefits of trade-offs. The National Competition Authorities (NCAs) rather than the European Commission (EC) are leading the ‘sustainability in competition law’ debates, which is the focus of this article. Therefore, this study reviews the current status quo of all NCAs' positions concerning sustainability-related matters by classifying them into four typologies in terms of their willingness to incorporate sustainability in their assessments. It further identifies four emerging NCAs models, which seem to divert from the EC's view. This can be problematic in ensuring the uniform application of competition law.