Title: Soft Law in EU Competition Law and its Judicial Reception in Member States -- A Theoretical Perspective
Abstract: The EU competition enforcement regime underwent quite some changes in both its substantive and procedural workings when Regulation 1/2003 – the 'Modernization' Regulation – entered into force on May 1st 2004. The procedural decentralization and the change in the logic of substantive enforcement the Regulation introduced created challenges for the new system, especially in light of the general principle of legal certainty. Mindful of possible (and plausible) enforcement inconsistencies, the European Commission maintained that certainty is going to be well served by the already existing and well-developed competition case law of the CJEU, the Commission’s own decisional practice, and, last but not least, its soft law guidance in the forms of guidelines, notices, communications, etc.