Background and Benefits of the Cooperation Agreement Between the Nordic Competition Authorities

• Main Author: Taurula, Maarit
• Format: Book Part
• Language: English
• Published: Zenodo 2021
• Subjects: European Competition Network; Nordic Agreement; enforcement of competition law; Nordic area; competition violations; EU legal framework; cooperation between EU Member States; competition restrictions; area of merger control; Nordic Cooperation Agreement; Nordic Competition Authorities; The Nordic competition authorities; Nordic countries; antitrust; merger cases; regional cooperation between competition authorities; merger investigations; Laki; Norway; greenlandic; Iceland
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4211550; https://zenodo.org/record/4211550

This unit was published in „International Cooperation of Competition Authorities in Europe: from Bilateral Agreements to Transgovernmental Networks” Błachucki, M., ed., (2020). The Nordic competition authorities have decades of experience in cross-border collaboration, and the first formal cooperation agreement between the authorities was signed in 2001. Sixteen years later, the cooperation agreement was renegotiated and expanded to enable wider forms of cooperation. On this occasion, Finland also joined the agreement. The European Competition Network provides for a well-functioning cooperation framework for the national competition authorities of the European Union. However, the EU framework does not meet all the needs of the Nordic countries and leaves room for a more extensive regional cooperation agreement. The Nordic Cooperation Agreement enables the exchange of confidential and non-confidential information in both antitrust and merger cases. In addition, the agreement also applies in purely national cases, i.e. where the competition restriction in question does not affect trade between the Nordic countries. Most importantly, as not all the Nordic countries are part of the EU, the Nordic agreement enables a deep cooperation between EU and non-EU countries. : {"references": ["The agreement of 8 September 2017 between Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden on Cooperation in Competition Cases. Available from: https://www.kkv.f/en/factsand-advice/competition-affairs/international-cooperation-related-to-competition-affairs/nordic/ agreement-on-cooperation-in-competition-cases/ [Accessed: September, 12 2020] (hereinafter also the '2017 Nordic Agreement').", "OECD (2018) DAF/COMP/GF/WD(2018)14: Global Forum on Competition Regional Competition Agreements: Benefts and challenges contribution from Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Sweden-Session III -29-30 November 2018, p. 3. 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