Agenda Archive

The Brexit Withdrawal Agreement—what happens if there isn’t one?

October 2018

During October and November 2018, the UK and the EU are hoping to agree on the basis for the UK to withdraw from the Union, with the Agreement to be ratified by EU institutions and the UK Parliament before the UK leaves on 29 March 2019. What happens if the UK leaves with no deal in place? In particular, what will be the effect on ports and trade?

Pass it on: the draft EU guidelines on pass-on and volume effects

October 2018

On 5 July 2018 the European Commission published draft guidelines to help national courts estimate the share of overcharges ‘passed on’ to indirect purchasers and final consumers of goods affected by a cartel. The guidelines also cover estimation of volume effects, which are the natural counterpart to pass-on. How helpful are these draft guidelines, and how could they potentially be improved?

The threat of common ownership: real or imagined?

October 2018

Common ownership—the simultaneous ownership of equity of two competing companies by the same investor—has been rising steadily. This trend has been largely triggered by increasing institutional investor participation, including index funds owned by asset managers such as Vanguard and BlackRock. However, as highlighted by Oxera Partner, Professor Julian Franks, and Oxera Associate, Professor Vikrant Vig, the rise has been accompanied by an important debate on the potential anticompetitive effects of common ownership