Structural Separation and Access Pricing

Date : 21 November 2003

 

Sponsored by the Knowledge Center for Excellence (The Hague), the OECD Competition Division (Paris) and ENCORE (Amsterdam)

In recent years, structural separation and access pricing have been suggested as methods to open the door to competition in industries formerly considered as unassailable natural monopolies. In these industries, competition can occur after structural separation between vertical portions of an industry, or after access is provided to various levels of infrastructure that appear to remain natural monopolies, whether vertically integrated or not. Even after structural separation, some measure of access pricing regulation remains essential. The conference will focus on structural separation and access pricing issues in a number of different industries with an emphasis on general lessons that can be learned from one industry and applied to others.

 

Questions to be asked of each industry:

• Does this industry have the potential for competition in at least some of its segments?
• What form of structural separation would be most appropriate in this industry?
• Which segments should and which should not be separated?
• How should access pricing be implemented (if at all) to reflect different possible regimes of structural separation?
• What lessons can be learned from past efforts at structural separation and access pricing in this industry?
• How can these lessons be applied to other industries?

 

The industries examined will include both those with significant experience of structural separation and access pricing and those with less experience, in particular:

• Telecommunications
• Electricity
• Railways
• Postal services

Programme

 

09.00	Introductory remarks by chairman Alberto Heimler, competition authorithy Italy
09.15	Telecommunications
10.45	Coffee
11.00	Electricity
12.30	Lunch
14.00	Railways
15.30	Coffee
15.45	Postal services
17.15	Lessons and conclusions: a panel discussion
18.00	Reception

> Click here for the conference leaflet (pdf) that includes the names of the speakers.