Celestial Navigation

• Department of Law

PhD thesis defence by Teresa Oriani

This study proposes to look beyond competition law to identify structuring principles for the treatment of environmental concerns in competition cases. The inquiry makes a working hypothesis: that competition authorities can use the environmental policy context as an external reference point to navigate the interaction between competition law and environmental sustainability, much like sailors engaged in celestial navigation use the stars to determine their course. 

To test this hypothesis, and to flesh out how the environmental policy context can inform the analysis of environmental concerns under Article 101(3) TFEU, the study contextualises the integration principle as one among many instruments for coordinating policies. At the same time, the study looks inside competition law and illuminates the potential of the policy context to structure the entry of external policy objectives into competition law, distinguishing between direct and mediated entry. Building on these insights, and with the help of case studies from the European Commission’s and the Dutch ACM’s practice, the study examines the diverse dynamics that can arise between environmental policy instruments and environmental agreements. Ultimately, the study argues that the type of policy instrument at play in a competition case and its interaction with the relevant environmental agreement can structure competition authorities’ choices about whether and how to interpret Article 101(3) TFEU in the presence of environmental concerns.