28 August 2019
Maarten Pieter Schinkel (professor of Competition economics and regulation) will present his research into the effects of allowing horizontal agreements with anticompetitive effects (‘cartels’) for the purpose of promoting more sustainable production and consumption (‘green’).
Schinkel is scheduled to speak at two leading policy events on sustainability and European competition law. The policy events will take place in Helsinki in September and in Brussels in October.
This policy was pioneered by the Dutch government (based on a number of initiatives such as the ‘De Kip van Morgen’), and is now being considered Europe-wide.
Schinkel is critical of the idea to allow such ‘green cartels’, as research shows that they tend to deliver minimal compensating sustainability benefits for maximum price increases. Instead, corporate social responsibility is itself a dimension of competition, and regulation is the more effective policy route for sustainability.