Professor Pablo Ibanez Colomo

This course is available on the LLM (extended part-time), LLM (full-time), MSc in Regulation and University of Pennsylvania Law School LLM Visiting Students. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

This course has a limited number of places and demand is typically high. This may mean that you’re not able to get a place on this course.

Prior knowledge of Competition Law is desirable, but not essential.

This module addresses some of the most topical and intellectually challenging aspects of contemporary Competition Law. The emphasis will be put on US antitrust and EU Competition Law, but developments from other jurisdictions are discussed where relevant. The module examines, inter alia, the application of competition law in high-technology and digital markets as well as its intersection with intellectual property (in particular patents and copyright).

Topics may include the following:

• Competition Law, Intellectual Property and Innovation
• Competition Law in High-Technology Markets (including investigations involving the Big Tech giants like Google and Amazon)
• Online distribution and brand protection over the Internet
• Competition Law and the pharmaceutical industry
• Standard-setting and technology licensing

There will be 20 hours of seminars in the Lent Term and two hours of seminars in the Summer Term. Regular teaching may be complemented with visits from officials and practitioners from the UK and the EU. There will be a Reading Week in Week 6 of Lent Term.

All students are expected to produce one 2,000 word formative essay during the course.

Whish, Competition Law (10th edn, 2020-21); Jones & Sufrin, EU Competition Law: Cases and Materials (7th edn, 2019).

Exam (100%, duration: 2 hours, reading time: 15 minutes) in the summer exam period.