No branch of European law has been as subject to expansion and change as competition law. Between the enormous forces of globalisation, technology, and EU enlargement, the Commission and national competition authorities have been compelled to keep rethinking their practices and procedures and issuing new regulations. Now, in the wake of its highly acclaimed predecessors, the new Third Edition of European Competition Law offers the practitioner everything required to act in accordance with the latest developments in the field.

Along with the thorough guide to continuing practice that its readers have come to expect, European Competition Law in its Third Edition fully covers such areas as the following:

• the Commission's new assessment of distribution practices and vertical restraints, in particular the block exemptions granted by Regulations 2790/1999 and 1400/2002;
• procedure before national competition authorities and national courts for enforcement of European rules under Regulation 1/2003;
• the new Merger Control Regulation in force as of 1 May 2004;
• the new Transfer of Technology Regulation; and,
• the increased fines for hard-core cartel practices or abuse of dominant market position.

  The Third Edition is remarkable in that it actually previews the substantive and procedural rules that will be coming into effect during 2004 and subsequent years. And, like prior editions, the work has no peer in its coverage of past administrative practice and the case law of the Court of Justice. All in all, European Competition Law, Third Edition, will be of immeasurable value to practitioners who need to keep informed about how EC competition laws are applied, so they can continue to render practical, meaningful advice to firms whose agreements, transactions and conduct in the marketplace are governed by competition rules.