Category: Competition Law

Impending changes to legal education

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| Competition Law, Legal Services Regulation

Stethescope and gavelWhile Portugal and Iceland garner headlines for their international financial woes, Ireland is getting on with implementing the terms of last November’s EU IMF Programme of Financial Support for Ireland. For readers of this blog, one very important element of that programme requires the removal of restrictions to competition in sheltered sectors, such as the legal and medical professions. In particular, the Programme recommends the implementation of the 2005 Report (pdf) of the Legal Costs Working Group and of the Competition Authority‘s 2006 Reports on regulated professions, including their Report on the Legal Professions. Unsurprisingly, the Bar Council professed itself unhappy with the IMF proposals; but, in my view, the implementation of these recommendations can change the Irish legal system for the better.

In January of this year, the Public Accounts Committee published their Third Interim Report on the Procurement of Legal Services by Public Bodies (pdf). Starting from the premise that public bodies procure huge amounts of legal services every year, the Report concluded that the ability to get value for money is restricted by the practices of the legal profession. Indeed, the Committee was very concerned that the two Reports mentioned above had not been implemented:

The Committee notes the restrictive practices that are keeping legal fees artificially high.

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Network Neutrality in the EU and Canada

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| Competition Law, Cyberlaw

Net Neutrality. All Bits are Created Equal. It's not just a good idea. It ought to be the LAW. via Finest DailyNet neutrality matters. The basic principle of equal access to the internet – and consequent absence of discriminatory restrictions upon or priorities for ISPs, governments, classes of content, kinds of equipment, or modes of communication – is crucial to the preservation of online freedom, ensuring that the internet remains a free, open, and democratic forum of communication. Much of the debate has concentrated on the position in the US, especially after the recent Federal Communication Commission‘s (controversial) Open Internet initiative. However, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission had already issued its (equally controversial) internet traffic management review; and the EU has recently conducted a public consultation on The open internet and net neutrality in Europe.

Dr Daithí Mac Sithigh (UEA | Lex Ferenda | @macsithigh) has written a superb paper on net neutrality in the EU and Canada ((2011) 14(8) Journal of Internet Law 3; via SSRN):

Regulating the Medium: Reactions to Network Neutrality in the European Union and Canada

Abstract: In this contribution on network neutrality, the expression-related elements of this issue are considered, including a case study of Ireland, highlighting the broad powers enjoyed by ISPs, and discussing whether the problem is a genuine one.

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The IMF deal can change the Irish legal system for the better

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| Competition Law, Irish Law, Legal Education, Legal Services Regulation

Sunday Business Post, front page, 12 Dec 10, via their websiteIn yesterday’s Sunday Business Post, I argued that the IMF deal can change the Irish legal system for the better, reflecting arguments I have already made here and here.

IMF deal can change the Irish legal system for the better

The IMF deal has provoked a great deal of discussion, from its impact on our political and economic sovereignty, through the details of tax increases, state spending cuts and the implementation timetable, to the question of whether it needs to be ratified by Dáil resolution or even referendum. But there is a lot more to it than that.

IMF packages typically require structural reform to open the labour market and encourage competition in goods and services. The memorandum of understanding between the IMF and our government is no different. It requires the government to introduce legislation to remove restrictions on trade and competition in professions such as law, medicine and pharmacy. …

The IMF memorandum made it clear that all of the necessary legislation must be enacted by the end of the third quarter of 2011. This is probably not an impossible target, as these recommendations were not new in 2005 and 2006: many of them had been made in a report in 1990.

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Bar Council unhappy with IMF proposals

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| Competition Law, Irish Law, Legal Education, Legal Services Regulation

Bar Council logo, via the Law Library websiteFollowing on from my post on the impact of the IMF bailout on Irish legal education, I see from today’s Irish Times that the Bar Council (logo left) is not happy with some of the proposals, in particular those directed to the establishment of an independent statutory Legal Services Commission:

Parts of legal sector reform ‘not in public interest’

CAROL COULTER, Legal Affairs Editor

THE BAR Council has criticised proposals concerning the legal professions in the Government’s four-year plan and in the EU-International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme of financial support. … Responding to queries from The Irish Times, the Bar Council said it welcomed aspects of the plan and the programme:

However, there are other aspects which have come as some surprise to the Bar Council, and which cause it concern, not because of any sectional or selfish interest but because they do not appear to be in the public interest.

… Bar Council chairman Paul O’Higgins SC said the Council had not been made aware of any detailed proposal to give effect to the establishment of an agency described as an “independent regulator” and it awaited details:

The Bar Council notes that the position of legal services ombudsman has recently been advertised in the national press.

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The impact of the IMF on Irish legal education – Updated

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| Competition Law, Irish Law, Legal Education, Legal Services Regulation

IMF logo, via the IMF wesbiteI never thought I’d see the day when I’d put both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Irish legal education together in the title of a blogpost. But there it is, above. And this is because the summary of the the Joint EU-IMF Programme for Ireland on the Department of the Taoiseach website suggests that there will be consequences for legal education:

Competition

Removal of restrictions to competition in sheltered sectors including:

Legal profession:

– establish an independent regulator;

– implement the recommendations of the Legal Costs Working Group and outstanding Competition Authority recommendations. …

The enhancement of competition and the reduction of regulation in sheltered sectors is a standard IMF prescription, so this recommendation comes as little surprise. As for its details, the Legal Costs Working Group was established in 2004 and asked to look at the way in which legal costs are determined and assessed, and it reported in 2005 (pdf). In December 2006, as part of a series of reports on regulated professions, the Competition Authority published a Report on the Legal Professions which determined that the legal profession was in need of substantial reform. …

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Tobacco advertising challenges

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| Competition Law, Freedom of Expression, Tobacco Control

The Public Health (Tobacco) Act, 2002 (also here), as amended in 2004 (also here) – and in particular Part 3 of the 2002 Act – constitute a comprehensive control on the sale and advertising of tobacco (the Office of Tobacco Control has a comprehensive list of the relevant legislation), and the legislation largely gives effect to EU law in this field. In particular, Section 33 of the 2002 Act as amended by section 5 of the 2004 Act prohibits advertising of tobacco products and section 43 of the 2002 Act as amended by section 14 of the 2004 Act requires vendors to ensure that tobacco products are kept in a closed container that is not visible or accessible to customers. These and related provisions were brought into force by the Public Health (Tobacco) Act 2002 (Commencement) Order 2008 (S.I. No. 404 of 2008) (also here) and took effect on 1 July of this year. Dublin solicitors Matheson Ormsby Prentice have a helpful description of the restrictions here. Now, today’s Sunday Times brings news that these prohibitions are to face a legal challenge in the Irish courts:

Philip Morris sues Irish government on tobacco ban

Tobacco giant Philip Morris International is to launch a legal action against the Irish government over its ban on the display of cigarettes in shops.

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Number unavailable – is locking phones lawful or anticompetitive?

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| Competition Law, Media and Communications

Locked phone, via the NYT site.Have you bought a locked mobile/cellular telephone? Are you thinking about doing do? If so, then you will be interested in an article in the New York Times during the week, entitled Locked vs. Unlocked: Opening Up Choice (also here). One element of it caught my eye in particular:

In the United States … some carriers — and in the case of the iPhone, a phone maker — say that unlocking the phone may violate the company warranty and thus the company will not repair or replace it if something goes awry. Some imply that it is not legal to unlock a phone, but the legal issues are murky at best. A subsection [ie, section 1201] of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 could be interpreted as saying that anyone who unlocks a phone for someone else or tells others how to do it might face legal action.

Some legal scholars, like Susan Crawford, a visiting professor at the University of Michigan Law School and an authority on digital copyright law, have argued that interpreting the act that way has little to do with protecting copyrights, and more to do with limiting competition. The Librarian of Congress, the office that determines what things are covered under the copyright act, exempts the unlocking of mobile phones from the law.

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