Doing Business in the EU - Legal Case Report.

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HELIA                EC Competition Law Assignment

Doing Business in EU                Case company: Atria Oy

Nana Osei-Bonsu

Frederick Elangwe

Svyatoslav Dokuchaev                12. March 2003

                

                                        

EC Competition Law


INTRODUCTION

In this report, we try to understand and look at how EU competition law can affect the operations of our case company (Atria). This is because the survival and success of Atria will strongly depend on regulations and competition rules in the meat industry set by EU.

COMPANY OVERVIEW

Atria Oyj is the largest meat-processing company in Finland. It produces and markets whole meat products, sausages, retail-packed meats, poultry products and convenience foods – such as minced meat products, casseroles, microwave meals and soups and salads – made of domestic meat. A major share of the products is sold in Finland via the retail market and catering. Atria Corporation consists of three Atria factories and the subsidiaries Liha and Säilyke Oy in Forssa, Finland, and Atria Lithells AB and Atria Meat AB in Sweden. Atria Oyj is the biggest exporter in the meat business in Finland. The most important countries for our exports are Sweden, Denmark, Japan, Korea, Norway and the USA.

COMPETITION LAW OVERVIEW

The regulation of the trade practices by EC has streamline the procedures and manner by which companies are transact and do businesses within the EU. This has brought into the spotlight the conflicting views about the role of EC. Large companies want a reduction in the power of EU, believing that the current power restrict their ability to grow and be globally competitive with their counterpart elsewhere. Smaller companies and individuals want an increase in the EC power to overcome what may look as unfair use of market power by lager companies.

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Whether or not the EC regulation is a limit on the ability of large companies in EU to become globally competitive ultimately depends on how EC competition rules are handle and executed.

The foundation of the EC legal framework of competition rules lies in the articles 81, 82, 87, and 89 of the EC treaty. These articles mentioned above prohibits all practices that restrict competition in a manner contrary to the law.

EU COMPETITION LAWS

EU competition laws focus on four main areas. These are; Restrictive agreements and concerted practices, Abuse of dominant position, Mergers ...

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