EC/United States agreement: application of competition rules

The Commission presented its report on the application of the agreement between the EC and the Government of the United States of America regarding the application of their competition laws (1 January 2001 to 31 December 2001). The report highlights that in 2001 a further intensification of EU/US cooperation in all areas of competition law enforcement was witnessed. 2001 saw a record number of merger transactions notified both to the Commission and the US authorities. There was a of 84 formal notifications made by the Commission during the period between January 2001 and 31 December 2001. During the same period, the Commission received a total of 37 formal notifications from the US authorities. The increase of cooperation in 2001 with respect to the combating of global cartels is noteworthy, also the authorities on the two sides of the Atlantic are taking increasingly convergent approaches to the identification and implementation of remedies, and to post-merger remedy compliance monitoring. The Commission, Department of Justice (DoJ) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) also continued to maintain an ongoing dialogue on general competition policy/enforcement issues of common concern.�