Sustainability Lunchtime Seminars: Where Environmental Law Meets Economic Law

Abstract

Sustainability in competition law has become a popular subject. The purpose of the lecture would be to explain what sustainability means in competitive context and what is its relationship with EU competition law. First, the question of a possible evolution of goals of competition law needs to be addressed, as if traditionally competition law seeks to achieve consumer welfare, one might wonder if a broader, horizontal obligation covering all domains of law, consisting in taking into account the environmental effects of any legislative and executive activity should not be included in antitrust goals analysis. Second, the EU courts case law shows that sustainability appears in different domains of EU law and more specifically within competition law some examples reveal very different approaches to this issue. Third, the legitimacy of Competition Authorities and the Courts to make this type of choice to either include a new goal of competition law in their practice or to adopt a horizontal approach of scrutinizing any economic activity not only through the lenses of economic viability but also environmental viability is to be analysed. The issue of expertise to do this type of exercise is also to be discussed.

Biography

Professor at the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, habilitated doctor, graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Gdańsk, post-graduate studies in European law at the University of Social Sciences in Toulouse (France), Master of European Studies at the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium). Judge at the General Court of the European Union as of September 2016.

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