Three shifts in EU competition policy: towards standards, decentralization, settlements

EU competition policy has undergone fundamental transformations over the past 20 years. The changes observed are substantive, procedural and institutional in nature. Two decades ago, EU competition policy was enforced centrally by the Commission in a way that is probably best described as traditional administrative law-making. Policy was formulated by means of formal decisions adopted in individual cases and by legislative instruments regulating firm behaviour in detail. Following the adoption of Regulation 1/2003, and as a result of the use of economic analysis, the enforcement landscape is more diverse and decentralized. National competition authorities have emerged as key players in the field (a trend that is also observed in other fields of EU economic regulation, including energy and electronic communications). Individual decisions are now crucially complemented by soft law instruments, the use of which started in the 1990s and which now permeate the whole discipline, and by negotiated procedures