{"id":6588,"date":"2004-05-07T00:28:26","date_gmt":"2004-05-07T04:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2004\/05\/07\/eu-erasing-professional-servi"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:58:48","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:58:48","slug":"eu-erasing-professional-services-borders-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2004\/05\/07\/eu-erasing-professional-services-borders-2\/","title":{"rendered":"EU Erasing Professional Services Borders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a name='a1451'><\/a><\/p>\n<p><DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/ethicalesq\/Suitcase002.gif\" alt=\"suitcase 2\" \/>&nbsp; It&#8217;s Springtime, and many of&nbsp;us think of Paris and Rome (or Brussels), and getting away from lawyering.&nbsp;&nbsp;The best <EM>pyj <\/EM>can do is tell you about a<\/FONT><FONT face=\"Arial\"><FONT size=\"2\">&nbsp;new Report on developments in the European Union relating to competition for professional services.&nbsp; <FONT color=\"#800080\"><A href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustinstitute.org\/recent2\/316.cfm\"><STRONG><EM>Toward a Borderless Market for Professional Services<\/EM><\/STRONG><\/A><\/FONT><FONT color=\"#000000\">&nbsp;(April 26, 2004) is written by trade expert <STRONG>Bernard Ascher<\/STRONG> for the <STRONG><A href=\"http:\/\/www.antitrustinstitute.org\/\">American Antitrust Institute<\/A><\/STRONG>.&nbsp;&nbsp; This brief but meaty summary of&nbsp;activity in the EU also ponders the implications for American professionals.&nbsp; <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/DIV><br \/>\n<UL><br \/>\n<LI><FONT face=\"Arial\"><FONT size=\"2\"><FONT color=\"#000000\">With <STRONG>Pennsylvania<\/STRONG>&#8216;s new <A href=\"http:\/\/www.padisciplinaryboard.org\/documents\/Multijuris%20Practice%20Rule%20Text.pdf\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Rule 5.5<\/FONT><\/A><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">&nbsp;(described <\/FONT><A href=\"http:\/\/www.padisciplinaryboard.org\/news%20page.html#mjp\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">here<\/FONT><\/A><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> and <\/FONT><A href=\"http:\/\/www.law.com\/jsp\/article.jsp?id=1083328838531\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">there<\/FONT><\/A><FONT face=\"Arial\"><FONT size=\"2\">) going into effect this week, and <\/FONT><\/FONT>permitting out-of-state and <EM>foreign<\/EM> lawyers to provide temporary legal services, <FONT face=\"Arial\"><FONT size=\"2\">the aai Report seems particularly timely.<\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/FONT><\/LI><\/UL><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">In <EM>Borderless<\/EM>, Ascher explains:<\/FONT><\/DIV><br \/>\n<BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><EM>The European Union is moving on <STRONG>two fronts<\/STRONG> to improve conditions of competition for professional services and other services supplied within its market. On one front, through its Competition Directorate General (DG), the EU is pressing Member States to <STRONG>remove restrictions<\/STRONG>, such as price-fixing arrangements and advertising curbs, that <STRONG>prevent competition in professional services<\/STRONG>; on the other front, through its Internal Market DG, the EU is proposing a Directive to cut administrative burdens and excessive red tape that prevent EU businesses and professional service providers from <STRONG>offering their services across borders<\/STRONG> or from opening premises in other Member States.<\/EM> <\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">He reports that &#8220;<FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Following a review process initiated by the Competition DG &nbsp;. . .&nbsp; the Commission concluded that the existence of regulatory restrictions &#8216;is preventing the delivery of benefits to the economy and to consumers in particular.&#8217; &nbsp;Thus, on February 9, 2004, the Commission announced that it is calling for Member States to abolish such restrictions unless they are &#8216;clearly justified by public interest&#8217;.&#x201D;&nbsp; The study covered six professions, lawyers, notaries, accountants, architects, engineers, and pharmacists.<\/FONT><\/DIV><br \/>\n<UL><br \/>\n<LI><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/ethicalesq\/PowerPlug.gif\" alt=\"power plug\" \/>&nbsp; In Lisbon in 2000, the European Council set the ambitious goal of becoming the &#8220;most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010.&#8221;&nbsp; As&nbsp;part of that effort, in March 2003, DG Competition launched a <EM>stocktaking exercise<\/EM> for professional services, to consider the justification for and effects of restrictive rules and regulations in the professions [such as fee scales, advertising restrictions, exclusive rights and rules prohibiting inter-professional co-operation].&nbsp;&nbsp;<br \/>\n<LI>The EU <A href=\"http:\/\/europa.eu.int\/comm\/competition\/liberalization\/conference\/libprofconference.html\"><EM>Competition Policy and Liberal Professions<\/EM><\/A>&nbsp;webpage has&nbsp;details on the <A href=\"http:\/\/europa.eu.int\/comm\/competition\/liberalization\/conference\/libprofconference.html#conference\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Conference<\/FONT><\/A><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">&nbsp;held in Brussels 28 October 2003 and the <\/FONT><A href=\"http:\/\/europa.eu.int\/comm\/competition\/liberalization\/conference\/libprofconference.html#study\"><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Study<\/FONT><\/A><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> . It also contains <A href=\"http:\/\/europa.eu.int\/comm\/competition\/liberalization\/conference\/libprofconference.html#comp_policy_of_cec\">many links<\/A> to <\/FONT><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">key speeches and policy documents<\/FONT>.<FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"> <\/FONT><\/FONT><\/LI><\/UL><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">Ascher also notes that &#8220;Europeans have long recognized the advantages of the U.S. market with free movement of goods and services and a uniform currency. The EU has been working toward that goal for Europe.&#8221;<\/FONT><\/DIV><br \/>\n<BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">&#8220;By the same token, development of a more unified market for professional services in the <STRONG>EU could set an example for countries with multiple regulatory jurisdictions<\/STRONG>, such as the United States, Australia and Canada, to review and assess their own regulations and procedures in a systematic way, on a national level.&#8221;<\/FONT><\/DIV><\/BLOCKQUOTE><br \/>\n<DIV><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">There&#8217;s much more in this pithy report, including a list of competitive restrictions in various professions.&nbsp; Those affecting the legal profession include:<\/FONT><\/DIV><br \/>\n<OL><br \/>\n<LI><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><br \/>\n<P><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">recommended prices for lawyers in Austria, Portugal, and Spain;<\/FONT><\/P><\/FONT><br \/>\n<LI><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\"><br \/>\n<P><\/FONT><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">effective advertising prohibition for lawyers in Greece, Portugal, and Ireland (barristers); <\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<LI><br \/>\n<P><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">bans on opening branch offices for lawyers in Luxembourg, Greece, Belgium, and Germany; and<\/FONT><\/P><br \/>\n<LI><br \/>\n<P><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">eight Member States where lawyers are not permitted to form corporations<\/FONT><FONT face=\"Arial\" size=\"2\">&nbsp;<\/FONT><\/P><\/LI><\/OL><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; It&#8217;s Springtime, and many of&nbsp;us think of Paris and Rome (or Brussels), and getting away from lawyering.&nbsp;&nbsp;The best pyj can do is tell you about a&nbsp;new Report on developments in the European Union relating to competition for professional services.&nbsp; Toward a Borderless Market for Professional Services&nbsp;(April 26, 2004) is written by trade expert Bernard [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-06-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-1Ig","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13844,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6588\/revisions\/13844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}