ARE REGULATORS PULLING THE STRINGS-
An appreciation by Phillip Taylor MBE and Elizabeth Taylor of Richmond Green Chambers
By its very nature, the airline industry is global. But what about the regulatory environments that govern it- And how do these environments affect its competitiveness- Do the differences between regulatory environments inevitably cause confusion and impair the competitiveness of this vital industry and consequently, its economic health-
In examining these questions and so many others that affect the airline industry, author Steven Truxal – a visiting Professor of English Law at Humboldt University, Berlin – compares mainly EU and American regulatory environments, pointing up their similarities and differences.
For example, European competition law and American antitrust law both define 'efficiency’ as enhancing consumer welfare, although their respective definitions of what exactly 'consumer welfare’ is tend to diverge.
'Workable competition’ in Truxal’s view, is the aim of European competition rules, while on the other hand, 'American antitrust law … is supply and demand-driven.’
What the book tends to reveal is that it is in the airline industry – probably more than in any other – that law and economics are most likely to be inextricably linked. This book will therefore be of interest to practitioners and academics in both fields and obviously to those involved with airlines and airports, not to mention related technical and retail industries in which the only constant is change.
Here, the author reminds us that in the face of deregulation and liberalization within the US and European air transport sectors, a number of cooperative arrangements have been entered into by certain airlines, from franchising to mergers with other airlines, or groups of airlines, or sometimes airports.
Referencing the somewhat startling subtitle, 'Puppets in Chaos’, Truxal puts forward the opinion that 'before deregulation, regulators were puppets and their strings were pulled by airlines under regulatory capture’. Now, post-deregulation,’ he adds, 'it remains unclear whether the regulators…or the airlines are pulling the strings.’
'One must wait several years perhaps for the market to adjust to recent regulatory changes,’ Truxal concludes, 'to give airlines time to restructure and adapt…and regulators time to devise more tailored remedies.’
Published by Routledge in 2012 as part of their Law/Economics series, this is a thorough, scholarly and thought provoking book – copiously footnoted and extensively researched, to include a useful table of cases, decisions and legislation. Anyone involved professionally with the airline industry will find it an invaluable purchase.
