Regional Competition Law Agreements: An Important Step For Antitrust Enforcement

This essay argues that regional competition law agreements on joint enforcement and advocacy (RJCAs) hold an important potential to solve many of the enforcement problems that small and developing jurisdictions face and can provide additional benefits that go beyond such solutions. It also argues that the costs involved in such agreements are not prohibitive and that many of these costs can be overcome by structuring appropriate solutions. Accordingly, RJCAs have the potential to create Pareto superior solutions to enforcement problems relative to unilateral enforcement. The essay then broadens the analysis to the potential effects of RJCAs on non-member states. It is argued that such agreements create much lower negative externalities for non-member states and for international coordination efforts than regional trade agreements. On the contrary, they often create positive externalities for non-member jurisdictions. Accordingly, they offer important potential for strengthening competition law enforcement and should generally be encouraged. In addition, as the article shows, RJCAs can further international efforts for coordination and cooperation in competition law.