Kluwer Competition User Manual

The content in the database is brought to you by Kluwer Law International in cooperation with the Institute of Competition Law.

• What content is included?

The database includes:

1) Primary Content, including the Annual Report and Press Releases from the European Commission, Commission Decisions (full and summary texts of the Decision) and the related Opinion of the Advisory Committee and Final Report of the Hearing Office, plus the related Commitment, Court Decisions and the related Opinion of the Advisory Committee, as well as Case Law and National Legislation (including Regulations, Directives, Guidelines and Notices) and for the European Union;

2) Analytical Content, including over 50 books from Kluwer Law International’s extensive competition law catalogue, as well as all content from the journal World Competition and selected articles from the two journals Common Market Law Review and Legal Issues of Economic Integration, as well as all the content from the regularly updated looseleaf publications Competition Law of Western Europe and the USA, EC Merger Reporter, Comparative Law on Monopolies, EC Merger Decision Digest, European Cartel Digest, and the American publication Worldwide Merger Notification Requirements. This also includes Explanatory Notes, Conclusions, Guidelines, Information, Communication, Working documents, Green papers, White papers, Evaluation reports, Studies, Notes in council minutes, Forms, and Model text;

3) Weekly updates of E-Competitions articles from the Institute of Competition Law;

• How far back does the database go?

The oldest print publication in the KluwerCompetitionLaw database is the looseleaf manual Competition Law in Western Europe and the USA, which first appeared in 1976. However, this included older decisions and legislation, dating back as far as 1914.

• In which order are the documents organized in the database?

As a default the documents are ordered by relevancy (the most relevant documents will be at the top of the search results). You can also order the documents by date.

• Can you search for blogposts?

This is not currently possible. However, you can browse the latest blog posts on the home page and in the News area. We hope to be able to implement this in the near future. For the time being, please use the search engine on the blog at http://kluwercompetitionlawblog.com/ .

• What is a NACE code and how can I use it in my search?

The NACE code is a statistical classification of economic activities in the European Community. At the moment, NACE codes only relate to Commission Decisions. Click here to see the full list of NACE codes on the website of the European Commission. You can search by NACE classification by using the drop down box in the advanced search field.

• Why are my printouts incomplete?

Due to browser-related bugs, which cannot be addressed by Kluwer Law International, certain ways of printing a document will not have the desired effect of printing documents in full. To avoid this, please refrain from using the print icon in your browser menu bar (ALT+R). Also, please refrain from choosing Print (CTRL+P) from the File menu. Documents should be printed as follows:

To print documents from a document or search results list:

1. Select Print Selected from the Email Selected/Print Selected dropdown menu.

2. Check the check box for the document you want to print.

3. Click the Go button. The Print Preview page will display for the selected document(s).

Tip! Multiple documents can be selected at one time. To select all the listed documents, click the Select all button.

To print individual documents:

1. Select and open the document of your choice.

2. Click on the printer icon. The Print Preview page will display for the selected document.

3. Go to ‘File’ > ‘Print Preview’ and then choose ‘Print’ to print the document as displayed in the Print Preview Page.

• I saw an interesting news item on the homepage but now it’s gone. Where can I find it?

A limited number of news items and blog post notifications are highlighted on the home page. Once removed from the home page, all news items, blog posts and recently added material notifications can be consulted on the ‘All News’ tab or found using the database search engine.

• What is the difference between 'News' and 'Updates'?

News consists of PDF documents from the external EU websites, such as press releases and newly added Decisions that are downloaded on to KluwerCompetitionLaw.com on a daily basis. The external websites include The European Court of Justice and the European Commission: http://ec.europa.eu/competition/index_en.html. Updates are those documents which have been converted to fully searchable XML-files. They are now fully part of the KluwerCompetitionLaw.com database.

Commission and Court Decisions

• Where do you get your commission and court decisions?

From the launch in 2006 on, KluwerCompetitionLaw.com is updated daily to offer you the latest Decisions from the European Commission and the European Court of Justice in the areas of Antitrust, Mergers, Liberalization and State Aid. The decisions before 2006 are derived from our print publications Comparative Law of Monopolies, Competition Law in Western Europe and the USA and EC Merger Reporter.

• How do you determine which cases are included in the database?

The main editor of KluwerCompetitionLaw.com, Ms. Ymke Hofhuis, selects the most significant and influential cases from the daily updates to be reflected in the fully searchable database.

• Can I browse court decisions?

All case law can be browsed for, based on the related country and/or organization. For an at-a-glance overview of all court decisions from a certain national jurisdiction, please select that jurisdiction from the Country browse category. Remember that the (advanced) search engine will obtain the same results, but will allow you to further specify and amend your search criteria.

• Do you include just the legislation that is in force?

The database includes both old and new legislation, so you can conduct research no matter what the age of the issues at hand. The law date or entry into force date of each document helps define the age.

• Which documents are linked in the Case File?

The Case file is a list in which all documents related to Court Decisions and Commission Decisions are listed. The type of documents you could expect to find (if available) include: the full text and summary versions of Commission Decisions; the Opinions of the Advisory Committee; the Final Reports of the Hearing Officer; Court Decisions of the European Court of Justice; Opinions of the Advocate General.