Commitments Implementation

Implementation of the Commitments

The work on a case involving a commitment decision is not over with the adoption of the commitment decision. From a competition point of view, the successful implementation of the commitment after the adoption of the decision is crucial for the ultimate success of the Commission's intervention. For this reason, careful monitoring of the implementation process is essential.

More about Commitments Implementation

The exact monitoring requirements will depend on the nature of the commitments. In most cases and, in particular, when divestiture remedies are concerned, the commitments should foresee that a trustee will be suggested by the addressee of the Article 9 decision shortly after the adoption of the proposed decision. The Trustee should be independent of the addressee of the decision and qualified for the monitoring task. After approval by the Commission, the trustee (and its team) can be appointed by the addressee of the decision. It will monitor in detail the different steps of implementation of the commitments and regularly report on this to the Commission.

More about the Subject

In cases of divestiture commitments, the case team in particular needs to verify that the purchaser fulfils all the criteria set out in the commitments. The case-team has to supervise this process and stay in regular contact with the trustee team in order to be able to avoid or address any potential problems which could render the commitments less effective than foreseen. Reference is made again to the model texts for divestiture commitments for mergers and for trustee mandates 1 .

Resources

See Also

References

• Information about Commitments Implementation in the Antitrust Manual of Procedures for the application of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU (Internal DG Competition)

Notes

[Note 1] http://ec.europa.eu/competition/mergers/legislation/commitments.pdf.

Further Reading

• Information about Commitments Implementation in “An Introduction to EU Competition Law”, Moritz Lorenz (Cambridge University Press)