Francisco Marcos

Bio: Francisco Marcos is an academic researcher from IE University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Competition law & Competition (economics). The author has an hindex of 9, co-authored 55 publications receiving 333 citations. Previous affiliations of Francisco Marcos include Autonomous University of Madrid.

The EU Antitrust Damages Directive : Transposition in the Member States

Abstract: This Book makes a significant and original contribution to the literature on the developing area of private enforcement of EU competition law. It delivers a significant, rigorous and comprehensive analysis of the transposition across a broad selection of MS (MS) of a major EU Directive introduced with the aim of harmonising and facilitation competition law damages actions across the European Union. This book seeks to review and analyse the implementation of the Antitrust Damages Directive across a selected number of EU MS. It aims at analysing the transposition of the Directive into national law firstly from a generic EU law implementation perspective, considering MS processes followed in implementing this EU Directive- ‘the Antitrust Damages Directive’. The book also looks more specifically at the national debates and their consequences for the substantive choices adopted in terms of implementation of the various Directive provisions.

Entertainment Made in Spain: Competition in the Bullfighting Industry

Abstract: Controversial for many reasons, bullfighting is probably one of the most typical entertainment activities in Spain. Bullfights are an idiosyncratic spectacle belonging to the Spanish cultural tradition, but which has also a meaningful economic significance. This paper will look at the role of market forces and competition in the bullfighting industry, describing the peculiarities of its organization and looking at the many anticompetitive features that characterize it. Spanish local authorities are strongly involved in the organization of bullfights and strict and detailed public rules govern the intervening actors and the performance during the shows. Thus, the institutional framework of bullfighting heavily constrains competition conditions in the industry, setting the scenario for a limited role of market forces. Furthermore, history shows that the collective organization of different players involved (promoters, breeders, bullfighters and subordinates) in order to exert their market power has occasionally lead to anticompetitive actions and reactions. Thus, unsurprisingly, the Spanish Competition authorities have dealt with some anticompetitive behaviour by some of the players participating in the bullfighting industry.

When competition is the last concern: the battle for the control of endesa.

Abstract: Competition law and regulation had played a prominent role in theprocess of construction and liberalization of the internal energy market in the EU Several transactions in the last decade have shown the difficulties of the process and how Member States may occasionally make a political use of merger review rules and of regulation to benefit domestic firms This chapter describes in all its complexity the ENDESA takeover contest (2005-2007) This case is a unique example of the mixture of legal issues that may be involved in takeovers requiring competition and regulatory approval Several lessons can be learnt from the case, not only for the history of Spanish and European competition law (especially regarding merger review) Other relevant industrial policy, regulation and corporate law issues were also raised by this landmark case, though the case is mainly illustrative of how politics, at the end, may affect or shape the final outcome in some business transactions

Autoridades autonómicas de defensa de la competencia en vías de extinciónRegional (Antitrust Authorities in Spain in Danger of Extinction( (in Spanish)

Abstract: La reciente decision de varias Comunidades Autonomas de suprimir sus autoridades de defensa de la competencia supone un evidente punto de inflexion en el proceso de descentralizacion de la aplicacion administrativa del derecho espanol de defensa de la competencia. Este articulo analiza criticamente las circunstancias que han conducido a esta decision y especula sobre el posible desarrollo de la defensa de la competencia autonomica en el futuro.The recent decisions of several Spanish Autonomous Regions to suppress their competition agencies is a turning point in the process of decentralization of the administrative application of competition law in Spain. This article critically examines the circumstances that have led to these decisions and speculates on the possible development of the regional enforcement of competition law in the future.

The storm over our heads: The rendering of legal services by audit firms in Spain

Abstract: In the last few years the legal profession in Spain has been in turmoil. The market for legal services has undergone profound changes and the profession has done its utmost to adapt to client’s new demands, modernising ® rms and improving the quality of the services rendered. Besides, the Spanish market for legal services is growing at a rate 20% higher than other European markets. The needs of clients have placed two challenges before Spanish attorneys and these have forced law ® rms into two diVerent forms of association. The ® rst has to do with globalisation. Business has grown transnationally and lawyers have had to attend client’s demands of legal services in other countries. This has lead Spanish law ® rms to increase their size and also to many kinds of international alliances and networks formed by several ® rms from diVerent countries. There are some instances of Spanish law ® rms trying to extend their services into other countries, by establishing a branch oYce or by taking over a foreign ® rm. This worldwide phenomenon aVects the legal professions of all countries, which ® nd themselves in ® erce competition for clients. In the case of Spain, however, the pressure and competition by foreign law ® rms has been more relevant due to two important factors. First, the increasing competition by foreign attorneys within the single European market. Secondly, the Spanish legal market is seen by many foreign ® rms as the access gate to the South American legal market. The ® rst challenge is therefore about competition among law ® rms in an increasingly integrated worldwide market for legal services (intraprofessional competition). The second challenge is related to multidisciplinary services and the rendering of non-legal services by law ® rms or the rendering of legal services by non-law ® rms. Law ® rms, consulting and auditing ® rms are becoming multi-product ® rms. In this case, law ® rms’ competition is not directly with other law ® rms but with other professionals, mainly audit and consulting ® rms (interprofessional competition).

I. Antitrust Law

Abstract: Antitrust law consists primarily of three federal laws: The Sherman Act (1890) prohibits conspiracies to create monopolies and anticompetitive conduct. The Clayton Act (1914) regulates mergers (Hylton). The Federal Trade Commission Act (1914) created the Federal Trade Commission and regulates advertising and other interstate competition (DOJ). Cases related to these laws are either decided using the “reasonable rule” which requires the plaintiff prove that defendants’ actions created an “unreasonable” restriction of competition in the market; or by the per se rule which infers the conduct and intent of the defendant based on their actions’ result (Hovenkamp).

Report and Recommendations

Abstract: On August 26, 2014, the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a final rule on continued at-reactor storage of spent nuclear fuel and terminated a two-year suspension of final licensing actions for new nuclear power plants and license renewals of existing plants. The 2014 “Continued Storage” rule is good news for opponents of Yucca Mountain. First, the NRC determination that spent nuclear fuel can be safely managed in dry casks for up to 160 years eliminates the argument that the successful licensing of Yucca Mountain is required to assure the continued licensing of nuclear reactors. The future of Yucca Mountain and the future of nuclear power are now separate. Second, the NRC environmental impact statement (EIS) prepared in support of the Continued Storage Rule defines the “no action” alternative required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in a manner that negates the key “no action” alternative in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) 2008 Supplemental EIS for Yucca Mountain, which was submitted to NRC as part of the license application. DOE’s conclusion that constructing and operating a repository at Yucca Mountain is the preferred alternative under NEPA is no longer supported by DOE’s and NRC’s own NEPA analyses. This paper reviews the developments that led up to the NRC’s new “Continued Storage of Spent Nuclear Fuel” Rule, beginning with the adoption in 1980 of the former “Waste Confidence Rule”.

The Market System: What It Is, How It Works, and What to Make of It

Abstract: Charles Lindblom has long been one of the country’s most interesting political theorists writing about the economy. In The Market System, he offers the general reader an excellent guide to thinking about the advantages and disadvantages of a market economy. Half of the book is devoted to an analysis of the market as a social institution. Lindblom’s account of the nuts and bolts of the system is fi rst-rate. He insists that we should think of the market as a mechanism for coordinating human behavior, much like a system of authority or a voting process. What is distinctive about the market is that it coordinates our activities through a process of “mutual adjustment.” There is no central authority here: each individual decides for himself how to respond to what other people are doing given the moves available to him under the rules. The image makes vivid to the reader one of the most attractive features of the market, namely the way that it simplifi es the enormously complex task of social coordination by decentralizing the decision-making process. The other half of the book is devoted to assessing the market in terms of values such as effi ciency, freedom, culture and democracy. Lindblom is at his best on democracy. He argues that the market does poorly in terms of both popular control over economic elites (e.g. bankers, fi nanciers and corporate executives) and popular control over political elites. One of the main problems lies in the fact that corporations participate in the political process as though they were ordinary citizens. His discussion of allocative effi ciency, on the other hand, could have been better. It never quite makes clear to the reader that the market generates outcomes that are “effi cient” in a sense that is much weaker than we normally associate with the idea of effi ciency. Overall, though, this book provides an excellent survey of the issues as well as some penetrating insights from Lindblom’s unique perspective. It would serve well as a companion piece to any general course on the normative dimensions of market society.

The Return of Civil Society: The Emergence of Democratic Spain

Abstract: (1994). The Return of Civil Society: The Emergence of Democratic Spain. History: Reviews of New Books: Vol. 22, No. 2, pp. 72-73.