European Community competition policy 1999.

Abstract

Competition policy is relevant not only for those in business and their advisers, but also for the cit-izens of Europe, who need to have an overall view of how competition policy is implemented and its relevance to improving their daily lives. One of the essential roles of competition is to pro-mote innovation and ensure that goods and ser-vices are produced as efficiently as possible and that these efficiencies are benefiting consumers in the form of lower prices or improvements in quality, choice or services. For example, during the period 1997-99, residential tariffs for inter-national calls fell, on average, by 40 % in most Member States. The introduction of competition to this sector resulted not only in a reduction in prices but also gave rise to a considerable increase in the supply of new and efficient ser-vices and products.