A. AIM

The aim of the Antitrust Writing Awards ("Awards") is to promote competition scholarship and to contribute to competition advocacy. Each year, the Awards Jury (“Jury”) and Concurrences readers (“Readers”) contribute to this achievement by selecting the best antitrust writings published around the world.

The Editorial Committee continuously collects nominations and announces them at the beginning of a new year. The Jury, composed of leading enforcers, academics and in-house counsel, participates impartially in this selection and seeks to reward the most meaningful antitrust publications of 2021. Additionally, all Readers are encouraged to nominate antitrust writings and vote for the Awards. In order to ensure impartiality, the Jury’s members are instructed to recuse themselves from voting in any category where their articles have been nominated.

In order to ensure all authors and institutions have a fair chance of winning an award, the Editorial Committee reserves the right to balance the number of nominations each author and institution will have in the same year.

The Awards consist of : “Best Articles” : best academic publications (peer-reviewed or student journals) and best business publications (non-peer-reviewed journals, briefs, memoranda, posts etc.) published by individual authors. “Best Soft Law” : best non-enforcement tools published by competition agencies such as guidelines, market studies, white papers, etc. “Best Student Paper” : best antitrust papers written by current Law & Economics students.

B. BEST ARTICLES

1. Eligibility

Eligible articles must have been :
– Accepted for publication, published, or released in print or electronic format in English between March 1 and November 30, 2021 ;
– Made freely available on the Internet (SSRN, academic websites...), or on the Awards website in order to allow the Jury and Readers to vote ; and
– Not previously nominated for the Awards.

Articles can be co-authored and eligible authors must be natural persons.

Articles are classified in Academic and Business categories :
– Academic articles : long articles accepted for publication, published, or released in print or electronic format in academic peer-reviewed journals, chapters of academic books, or student journals… ;
– Business articles : short articles accepted for publication, published, or released in print or electronic format in professional publications, such as non-peer-reviewed journals, briefs, memoranda, blogs...

Each of the above two categories is sub-divided into the same 10 sub-categories :

• General Antitrust : including general antitrust theory and paradigms, new ideas, and perspectives for antitrust on a general level
• Concerted Practices : including criminal and civil cartel enforcement at the federal, state, and local level, treatment of joint ventures, vertical restrictions
• Unilateral conduct : including attempted monopolization, tying, predatory pricing
• Mergers : substantive merger analysis, merger enforcement and guidelines
• Intellectual Property : issues relating to antitrust and intellectual property
• Private Enforcement : issues relating to antitrust private enforcement
• Cross-border Issues : antitrust issues arising within multiple national or supranational jurisdictions
• Procedural Issues : issues relating to antitrust procedures by courts, enforcers, and parties to antitrust cases
• Digital : issues relating to antitrust enforcement in digital markets
• Economics : including economic theories, models, and statistical tools used in the antitrust field

To ensure that everyone has a fair chance of winning an award, one individual participant cannot submit more than 2 articles by main category (Academic or Business), and each firm cannot submit more than 10 articles by main category and no more than 2 articles per individual by main category.

2. Selection & Voting procedure

2.1 Jury’s Choice

The Editorial Committee selects two pools of eligible academic and business articles based on Readers’ submissions and the Jury’s suggestions.

The Jury is composed of two Steering Committees (Academic Steering Committee and Business Steering Committee) and a Board. The Steering Committees vote for their favorite articles, resulting in a shortlist of 40 finalists (20 Academic and 20 Business). Finally, the Board votes for the 20 award-winning articles (10 Academic and 10 Business), 1 for each sub-category.

Articles are judged according to the quality of writing, scholarship, originality, practical relevance, and the contribution they make to competition advocacy. The Board reserves the right to award fewer awards than planned if the articles under consideration do not meet the standards of the Awards.

2.2 Readers’ Choice

Readers are able to vote online for their favorite articles starting on January 19 and ending on March 25, 2022. The most voted articles in both the Academic and Business categories are announced as the winners during the Awards Ceremony.

Each reader can vote only once per article and the votes are anonymous, with no personal information from the reader being stored on the website, except for non-personally identifiable data used by the computer system to exclude duplicate votes.

3. Tie-Breaking for Nominees

Should the Steering Committees’ votes result in a tie, all articles with the same number of votes will be submitted to the Board. In case of further ties at the Board level, the chairman of the Board will make the final decision.

4. Multiple wins

In order to ensure all nominated authors have a fair chance of winning an award, one author cannot be awarded in multiple categories in the same year.

Should the same author have the most number of votes in more than one category, the article with a higher number of votes will be considered as the winner and the other articles will be withdrawn from the competition.

C. BEST SOFT LAW

The “Best Soft Law” selection aims to contribute to developing antitrust culture and awareness. Alongside the ICN’s work, it seeks to support international antitrust advocacy by drawing attention towards the most meaningful competition agency practices. It aims at singling out some of the most interesting antitrust administration practices that could be usefully applied more generally.

1. Eligibility

Eligible publications are non-enforcement tools such as guidelines, market studies, white papers, etc., issued by competition agencies or international organizations between March 1 and November 30, 2021. Publications are judged according to practical relevance, innovation, and the contribution they make to competition advocacy.

To ensure that every institution has a fair chance of winning an award, institutions cannot submit more than 2 soft laws.

2. Selection & Voting procedure

The Editorial Committee invites competition agencies to submit their best soft law documents. The Steering Committees and Readers then vote for the best documents. The number of winners may vary, depending on the actual number of submissions.

3. Readers’ Choice

Readers are able to vote online for their favorite soft laws starting on January 19 and ending on March 25, 2022. The most voted soft laws will be announced as the winners during the Awards Ceremony.

Each reader can vote only once per article and the votes are anonymous, with no personal information from the reader being stored on the website, except for non-personally identifiable data used by the computer system to exclude duplicate votes.

D. BEST STUDENT PAPER

The Antitrust Writing Award for Best Student Paper rewards one student paper that stands out by its originality or relevance to current antitrust issues. The goal of the Award for Best Student Paper is to promote antitrust laws, antitrust economics, and antitrust policies among Law and Economics students and to support student scholarship in the field.

The winners will have their submission published in the Concurrences e-Competitions Bulletin (which covers antitrust cases from 85+ jurisdictions globally), and will receive a one-year Concurrences+ subscription (which gives access to the entire database of writings, photos, and videos from Concurrences antitrust conferences, articles, and books).

1. Eligibility

Students who want to participate in the competition must have been graduate students enrolled in a law school, business school, or graduate school economics program at the Master’s level or higher in 2021. Eligible papers must have been written or published by the student(s) during the year 2021.

Students must submit the name of their school and proof of their enrollment when submitting their paper.

Papers may be co-authored, but to ensure that every student has a fair chance of winning an award, one student cannot submit more than 2 papers.

2. Format

Participants must submit a paper in the format of a case summary or commentary of a specific antitrust case, investigation, regulation, guideline, or policy. The paper may cover antitrust cases that are criminal or civil, at the local, regional, national, or international level, public or private enforcement, within any jurisdiction globally. Papers must be between 2,000 and 8,000 words long (including footnotes) and must be written in English. Papers can be individual or co-authored with other students.

3. Selection & Voting procedure

The Best Student Paper Award will be awarded to the paper which collects the most votes from a peer jury composed of 5 George Washington University Law School students under the mentorship of Prof. Bill Kovacic.

E. TERMS

1. Submissions

The deadline for submitting all documents for nominations is November 30th, 2021. Submissions are to be done by using the electronic nomination forms on the Awards website (www.awards.concurrences.com).

2. Publication

The Awards results will be made public at the Awards Ceremony, which will take place on April 5, 2022, on the eve of the ABA Antitrust Spring Meeting, in Washington, D.C. The Awards results will also be announced via social media and emails to subscribers of Concurrences newsletters (sign up here) after the Awards Ceremony. The results will also be made available on this website.

3. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

Individual votes remain confidential. Click here to read the Terms of use and our Privacy Policy.

4. Miscellaneous

The Awards are managed by Concurrences. Concurrences, acting as the event manager, works to ensure that a sufficient number of quality articles and publications are submitted and surveyed, checks eligibility, and organizes the Awards Ceremony. Any unexpected issues will be dealt with by the Editorial Committee of the Awards.

F. CONTACT

Any questions regarding the Antitrust Writing Awards should be referred to awards@concurrences.com.