Division of Authority and Applicable Law

As regard an antitrust issue under review by a competition authority, the applicable law is determined by whether the trade effect criterium applies to it or not. If the concerned issue may affect the flow of goods between EU member states, be it in a negative or positive manner, it might bring about an effect on trade between EU member states (trade effect). Should this be the case, the review is to be done through Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU, the rules and regulations set forth by virtue of them as well as the rulings of the European Court of Justice. If the trade effect does not apply, the case is handled by the Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority that applies the national Competition Act. Due to the fact that competition legislation is almost completely harmonized with EU competition law, both ways of application are, however, most likely to bring about the same outcome.

Should EU competition rules apply to an antitrust issue, the Commission will gain jurisdiction. National competition authorities must, however, also apply EU competition law each time the trade effect is applicable.

Within the network of the national competition authorities and the European Commission (ECN), an antitrust issue can be addressed to the authority that has the best prerequisites for such a review. The idea of the ECN is that any competition restriction case may be taken up by an other authority or in an other country with the intention to find a best place of proceedings for each case. By virtue of the ECN, the Commission is nowadays capable of influencing the outcomes of national reviews and, ultimately, able to address issues to itself whenever it considers appropriate.

As regard merger control, the competent authority is however always either a national competition authority alone or the EU Commission alone (the “one stop shop principle”).