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Petrochemical production is tightly entangled with fossil fuel extraction and constitutes the primary driver of oil demand growth. Therefore, scholars have increasingly started exploring the linkages between fossil fuels and chemicals, tracing their importance for the political economy of energy transitions. A defining feature in the global petrochemical industry is that the majority of the recent
Established in 2015, the Multi-Stakeholder Engagement (MuSE) Consortium is an international network of over 120 individuals interested in stakeholder engagement in research and guidelines. The MuSE group is developing guidance for stakeholder engagement in the development of health and healthcare guideline development. The development of this guidance has included multiple meetings with stakeholde
The prohibition against excessive pricing dates back to the years of Babylonian King Hammurabi. Nevertheless, the prohibition is described by many as being “controversial” and against “mainstream economics”, which is why it should be applied rather sparsely. It has also rather routinely been claimed that the actual number of excessive pricing cases is “scarce”, “limited” and so on. Despite the his
The COVID-19 crisis noted many reports of dramatic price increases of essential items such as face masks, hand sanitisers and disinfectants. Already in March 2020 the Competition Authorities in Europe, by way of a joint statement by European Competition Network and individual public announcements, cautioned against price gouging practices and re-affirmed their commitment to pursue such practices v
Excessive pharmaceutical pricing cases in EU have progressed from a theoretical possibility to becoming a recurrent enforcement reality, following heightened law and policy attention on affordability of medicines. This matter gained considerable momentum in the wake of COVID-19 crisis as result of the increased health spending, with debates on affordability raging at WTO and WIPO levels. Unfair pr
Despite being heavily regulated, the pharmaceutical sector in Europe has in recent years noted many enforcement decisions against excessive pharmaceutical pricing as an anti-competitive practice under Article 102(a) TFEU. Although described as a ‘rarity’ in competition law in most parts of the doctrine, numerous excessive pricing cases have emerged in Italy, UK, Denmark, and the Netherlands in rec
Recent years have seen the dominance of neoclassical, marginalist and welfarist schools of Competition Law and Economics being challenged more vigorously than ever [See two major collecting works on fairness in economics in: Fennell and McAdams (2013) and Cappelen and Tungodden (2019)]. Although the core assumptions of the neoclassical school regarding overt reliance on rationality and efficiency
On 31 January 2018, the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority adopted a decision that found the Swedish company CD Pharma, a generic distributor, to be in breach of Article 102(a) TFEU due to having abused its dominant position and imposed excessive and unfair prices for the drug Syntocinon. The company had increased the price of the drug by 2000% on the Danish market in the period April 2014-On 31 January 2018, the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority adopted a decision that found the Swedish company CD Pharma, a generic distributor, to be in breach of Article 102(a) TFEU due to having abused its dominant position and imposed excessive and unfair prices for the drug Syntocinon. The company had increased the price of the drug by 2000% on the Danish market in the period April 2014-
Both Hungary and Poland have been in the spotlight regarding their democratic backsliding, with Executives exerting control over supposedly independent pillars of democracy, such as courts or the media. While the concerns about these countries also voiced by leaders of European institutions were similar, the resistance against the systematic erosion of judicial independence comes in different form
This introduction develops a theoretical framework for understanding authoritarian backsliding against the backdrop of existing historical and European socio-legal scholarship. It introduces a number of key distinctions to better understand socio-legal variance among autocratisation. Specifically, it highlights the distinction between authoritarian backsliding and complete breakdown of judicial in
Prohibition of excessive pricing belongs to one of the oldest legal constructs in human history. The historical roots and the near-universal codification of the concept of excessive pricing has however not mitigated the contentious quarrel alongside seemingly unreconcilable legal-economic positions. Positions ranging from those denying the very existence of excessive pricing, let alone endorsing e
During times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, policymakers and the public reveal a strong preference for fairness in pricing even when that would reduce efficiency. For example, they support the application of price gouging laws that prevent prices for necessities from skyrocketing but probably also dampen incentives for firms to produce more and alleviate the shortage. More generally, a
Compulsory licensing refers to a situation in which a non-exclusive license of an intellectual property right (‘IPR’) can be granted by a competent authority to a third party to make, use or sell an invention, where remuneration is paid to the right-holder and the right-holder maintains its legal intellectual property rights. Thus, Compulsory Licensing represents an exception to the normal exclusiCompulsory licensing refers to a situation in which a non-exclusive license of an intellectual property right (‘IPR’) can be granted by a competent authority to a third party to make, use or sell an invention, where remuneration is paid to the right-holder and the right-holder maintains its legal intellectual property rights. Thus, Compulsory Licensing represents an exception to the normal exclusi
For the first time, an IP created in China has become a global consumer craze. And it happened entirely without central planning.
A critical challenge in developing anion exchange membrane (AEM) water electrolysis is to design high-performance AEMs with chemical and mechanical stability under harsh alkaline environments. Herein, we report the rational design and synthesis of QP(T-3-Pip) featuring flexibly linked isomeric piperidinium cations via a Friedel-Crafts polyhydroxyalkylation between terphenyl and commercial 3-piperi
We investigated the presence of the fecal indicator bacteria Escherichia coli, and other taxa associated with sewage communities in coastal sediments, near beaches with reported poor bathing water quality, focusing on the influence of effluent from a local wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and combined sewer overflows (CSO). Using a three-year dataset, we found that treated wastewater effluent is
New methods and theoretical approaches to the study ofSamizdat - self-publishing and autonomous circulation of textsin the Soviet Union - have been challenging the traditionalviews that portray it as a mere form of dissident activity.Recently, a study by Historian Ann Komaromi classified it as anextra Gutenberg culture, distinct from “print culture” becauseit lacks its characteristics of standardi
