Preliminary Observations

Abstract

In the summer of 1962 when the United Kingdom was engaged in negotiations with a view to joining the European Economic Community (E.E.C.) I ventured to write a paper on Articles 85 to 90 of the Treaty of Rome which contain the Rules of Competition operative in the E.E.C. The fairly wide interest in this subject at that juncture was not only due to the expected entry of this country into the Community but also to the fact that the first Regulation issued by the Council of Ministers of the E.E.C. on the application of these Articles had come into force on March 13, 1962 and was implemented by a Regulation issued by the Commission on May 3, 1962 relating to the form, contents and other particulars of the applications and notifications which had now become necessary. Furthermore, on the 6th April of the same year, the Court of the European Communities had rendered its first Judgement (in the so-called Bosch case¹) in the field of European Cartel Law by which the Court confirmed, though with some qualifications, the immediate applicability of Article 85. As a result of the publication of the Regulations, attention was focused on their meaning and effect, that is to say, on matters of procedure, whereas efforts to understand and interpret the substantive law of the Rules of Competition were lacking.