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Luc Gyselen, Feb 14, 2008
Since the entry into force of Regulation 1/2003 on May 1, 2004, the Commission has already launched four comprehensive sector inquiries on the basis of Article 17. They concerned, respectively, energy, retail banking, and business insurance (June 2005) and now pharmaceuticals (January 2008). Why have sector inquiries become so fashionable? This paper will briefly address three issues related to the inquiries:
1. First, what purpose do sector inquiries generally serve?
2. Second, what has sparked off the inquiry in the pharmaceuticals sector?
3. Third, what can we expect in light of previous experiences with other sector inquiries?
