The 1998 Volume on the regulation of communications markets is the third in a successful series of European Competition Law Annuals,founded upon open dialogue between technical experts, market analysts and legal practitioners. Gathering together academic papers and edited transcripts of expert discussions, it offers readers a lively and informed insight into the topical debate of whether governments, or the European Union, should intervene to prevent powerful firms from abusing their control of critical 'gateways' between consumers and communication information services. The Volume examines the technical and market evolutions that have allowed the development of single communications networks, which offer consumers a variety of telephone, audio-visual and computer data services. In an era of market liberalisation, the editors and contributors ask how private ownership of such communications networks may be reconciled with the need to ensure consumers easy access to the services that underpin our, so-called, 'information society'.

Table of Contents:

Introduction - Claus D. Ehlermann

Biographical Notes on the Participants

Panel One: Regulating Access to Bottlenecks

1. Panel Discussion

2. Working Papers - Fod Barnes, Bernard Amory and Alexandre Verheyden, Jens Arnbak, Henry Ergas, Herbert Hovenkamp, Gunter Knieps, Daniel Rubinfield and Robert Majur, Joachim Scherer, Herbert Hungerer, James Venit

Panel Two: Agreements, Integration and Structural Remedies

1. Panel Discussion

2. Working Papers - Mark Armstrong, Donald Baker, Eleanor Fox, Barry Hawk, Colin Long, Michael Reynolds, Alexander Schaub, Klaus-Dieter Scheurle, Mario Siragusa

Panel Three: Institutions and Competence

1. Panel Discussion

2. Working Papers - Ulrich Immenga, Stuart Brotman, Ian Forrester, Frederic Jenny, Bruno Lasserre, Santiago Martinez Lage and Helmut Brokelmann, James Rill, Mary Jean Fell, Richard Park and Sarah Bauers, Giuseppe Tesauro, Robert Verrue, Peter Waters, David Stewart and Andrew Simpson, Dieter Wolf, Dimitri Ypsilanti

Afterword - Louisa Gosling