International competition network at twenty origins

The International Competition Network (ICN) is a unique phenomenon. As a virtual and informal network of competition enforcement agencies from around the world, it has in less than two decades become the single most authoritative platform in the field of international competition law and policy. Currently uniting more than 140 competition authorities from developed and developing countries, the ICN has made significant contributions to the harmonization and converge once of procedural and substantive competition law and policy in the area of cartels, unilateral conduct and mergers. Moreover, the ICN has stimulated competition authorities to streamline procedures, pay due attention to procedural fairness guarantees for parties under investigation and to build up agency capacity, resources and knowledge to review and assess potentially anti-competitive conduct in addition to collaborating more effectively across jurisdictions on enforcement and policy. In doing so, the activities of the ICN are of direct importance to consumers worldwide. As a successor to The International Competition Network at Ten, a collection of commentaries that was published at the occasion of the ICN’s tenth anniversary in 2011, this publication again brings together a number of essays written by leading competition agency officials, private sector lawyers and academics on the accomplishments and aspirations of the ICN at the end of its second decade. The essays included in this book provide insights into the origins of the ICN, cover the activities that the network has embarked upon during the past decade, explore its accomplishments and the future directions that the organization will embark upon in a challenging but exciting time that is witnessing a resurgence of popular interest in competition law, including an almost global backlash against parts of the tech industry and attempts to accommodate sustainability considerations, labor law issues and other public interest policies within competition law and, more recently, some dramatic geopolitical frictions. The authors and editors of this International Competition Law at Twenty book have sought to contribute to the history of the ICN through this collection at the dawn of the organization’s third decade.