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In this study, nine different types of essential facilities in the state of Iowa (such as hospitals, fire stations, schools, etc.) were analyzed on a county level in terms of flood depth, functionality and restoration time after flooding, and damage sustained during flooding. These essential facilities were also analyzed on the state level in terms of their location relative to the 100 y and 500 y flood zones. Results show that the number of essential facilities within the flood extent reached up to 39%, and during the 100 y flood scenario all but one of the six chosen counties lost functionality of 100% of their facilities. Most essential facilities were found to have a flood depth of 1 to 4 ft deep and a restoration time of 480 days. The purpose of this study is to bring awareness to decisionmakers regarding the risk that flooding events pose to essential facilities and to highlight the increasing dangers of flooding on a broader scale. This study will be beneficial to improve mitigation strategies, emergency response plans, and ensuring that emergency services and facilities are available in the event of future floods for the affected areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Annotation on the Judgment of the General Court (Fourth Chamber, Extended Composition) in Case T-136/19 Bulgarian Energy Holding v Commission [2023] EU:T:2023:669 On 25 October 2023, the General Court annulled a Commission Decision regarding an alleged abuse of a dominant position by Bulgarian Energy Holding (BEH) and its subsidiaries for obstructing access to the transmission network, the Romanian Pipeline 1 and the UGS Chiren storage facility to potential entrants. The Commission's Decision was annulled in its entirety by the General Court based mainly on an incorrect finding of abuse of a dominant position and an infringement of the rights of defence.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The holder of intellectual property is entitled to exploit its intellectual property in principle. However, China’s Anti-monopoly Law prohibits the anti-competitive refusal to deal, including the refusal to license intellectual property, which might constitute an abuse of market dominance. Existing anti-monopoly rules related to the refusal to license intellectual property in China are rather general and lack a definite test for the assessment, leaving too much discretion for Chinese competition authorities to interpret the law. As the two main antitrust jurisdictions globally, the US and the EU have different approaches to the refusal to license intellectual property. By reviewing comparative experience, the EU approach is more appropriate for China. It is suggested that China should establish a clear-up test to analyse the refusal to license intellectual property cases under the Antimonopoly Law, considering the indispensability of intellectual property and its influences on innovation. Meanwhile, Chinese law should include provisions on the remedy of a refusal to license. In this regard, China can make its anti-monopoly enforcement as to the refusal to license more transparent and build up a stable expectation for both domestic and foreign high-tech undertakings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As data have become an increasingly important asset of modern companies in the digital era, certain types of data, known as 'essential data', have become particularly crucial in market competition. The refusal to share 'essential data' may raise competition-relevant concerns, and the intervention by competition law to ensure its sharing is thus in demand. Yet, three dimensions should be carefully assessed before the legal interventions are deployed and applied. First, clear criteria should be crafted for identifying 'essential data'. Second, it is vital to assess the role of 'essential data' concerning potential abuses of market dominance and merger control by corporations. Finally, the reasonable conditions under which the sharing of 'essential data' is compelled should be specified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista E-mercatoria is the property of Universidad Externado de Colombia, Departamento de Derecho Comercial and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this study, nine different types of essential facilities in the state of Iowa (such as hospitals, fire stations, schools, etc.) were analyzed on a county level in terms of flood depth, functionality and restoration time after flooding, and damage sustained during flooding. These essential facilities were also analyzed on the state level in terms of their location relative to the 100 y and 500 y flood zones. Results show that the number of essential facilities within the flood extent reached up to 39%, and during the 100 y flood scenario all but one of the six chosen counties lost functionality of 100% of their facilities. Most essential facilities were found to have a flood depth of 1 to 4 ft deep and a restoration time of 480 days. The purpose of this study is to bring awareness to decisionmakers regarding the risk that flooding events pose to essential facilities and to highlight the increasing dangers of flooding on a broader scale. This study will be beneficial to improve mitigation strategies, emergency response plans, and ensuring that emergency services and facilities are available in the event of future floods for the affected areas.

Copyright of Latin American Law Review is the property of Universidad de los Andes and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article provides an overview of the main developments in abuse of dominance enforcement in the EU between November 2020 and October 2022. The EU Court judgments and European Commission decisions adopted in the past two years discussed fundamental principles in the application of Article 102 TFEU, with a particular focus on the digital/tech sector and regulated industries with former statutory monopolies. The judgments and decisions concern a wide range of practices, including access to essential facilities, exclusivity, leveraging, and excessive pricing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In e-commerce, data has long played a special role as a factor in competition between different players, and its importance continues to grow. A review of the current legal situation is a basic prerequisite for any legal policy proposals to improve market access conditions and thus competition in a platform economy. As a result, the current article attempts to discuss the legal framework that governs the relevant legal relationships between platforms and retailers on the example of Amazon. The emphasis is on the scope of retailers' antitrust claims against online platforms, as well as the extent of platforms' obligations. Participation and access claims relating to data or information, as well as certain marketing services, are particularly relevant in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term self-preferencing has gained great prominence in the competition and regulation debate involving digital platform markets. However, it has increasingly been used to designate practices with distinct structure, economic rationale, and effects, including in contexts that fall outside of digital markets (even though those conducts already existed in preceding times and were widely scrutinized by competition authorities under the existing legal grounds). In Brazil, the situation is no different. This is due to the lack of a well-established legal test, including definitions about presumptions of illegality and burden of proof, and the attempt to concentrate, under the same “umbrella” diverse and distinct conducts. Following up on debates in international scholarship and, most relevantly, discussions within the European scenario, this article provides initial suggestions for the development of an adequate legal test for the practice of self-preferencing in Brazil. We make a preliminary attempt to differentiate between diverse categories of self-preferencing and suggest, among other aspects, that tests and theories of harm existing in CADE case law should be improved and adapted to drive antitrust analysis for those practices. This is the case, for example, for the classic (or “pure”) pattern of what the scholarship has equated to self-preferencing, being possible to turn to an adaptation of the CADE’s position on the essential facilities doctrine (EFD). We argue the essentiality test should not be completely abandoned, as it stands as a relevant divisor between distinct types of self-preferencing, with relevant enforcement implications, and provide an initial outline of an adapted legal test to assess essentiality.

Tourism is the main service industry significantly developing in the world. It is recognized as the critical factor in economic improvement in various countries. Saudi Arabia is one of the oldest and most famous spots for pilgrimage tourism due to its Islamic heritage. The study analyzes data available on the websites of the Saudi government to specify the contribution of travel and tourism revenue to the economy and its trend, occupancy of residential, and transportation capacity. A tourism satisfaction questionnaire was administered online to get the responses of Saudi nationals and residents related to tourism infrastructure, facilities, and other tourism services in Saudi Arabia. Ranks and percentage analysis were applied to get the relational satisfaction of tourists. Index numbers, ratios, percentages, and coefficient of variations were applied to get the trend, yearly fluctuations, variations, weights, and contribution of tourism avenues. There is a positive but low degree correlation between tourism revenue and the GDP of Saudi Arabia for the period from 2010 to 2018. The results indicate either negative or negligibly positive revenue growth of the accommodation/hotel services, food services, and air transportation. Two-thirds of tourists are either strongly satisfied or satisfied with essential and other tourism services and facilities in Saudi Arabia. Apart from tourist satisfaction, the Saudi government may consider a variety of services as per the economic level of the targeted tourists, and softening of visiting visa procedures and fees to enhance tourism revenue of major contributors for the positive and progressive development to the economy. AcknowledgmentThe authors would like to thank the Deanship of Scientific Research, Prince Sattam Bin Abdulaziz University, Alkharj, Saudi Arabia, for providing financial support to complete this project (Project No: 2020/02/16978).

Fintechs are crucial to ensuring Europe's transition to a digital economy. In its Digital Finance Strategy, the Commission endorses the need to ensure a level playing field in the provision of digital financial services. However, the dominant position that banks hold in the European economy has enabled them to engage in abusive practices, such as the refusal to grant access to data to fintechs. Such a practice could also occur among bigtechs, which are soon to become dominant players in the payment services sphere. The first part of this article pertains to the Payment Services Directive II and to what extent it has contributed towards levelling the playing field between banks and fintechs. The second part of this paper analyses the extent to which provisions of the proposed Digital Markets Act (DMA) could help contribute towards levelling the playing field between bigtechs and fintechs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Regulatory efforts to introduce effective intramodal competition to the rail sector, in particular to the long-distance intercity market segment, have so far been only marginally successful in Germany. This stands in stark contrast to some other EU member states such as Italy, Sweden, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Spain and, most recently, France. In 2019, the year before the outbreak of the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic and 25 years after Germany’s fundamental 1994 ‘Bahnstrukturreform’ (structural reform of the railway system), which eliminated the legal network monopoly of former Deutsche Bundesbahn for passenger transport services, the combined market share of all competitors for long-distance passenger services was still marginal at 4 per cent (Bundesnetzagentur, 2021a, 26). By contrast, its competitors’ market shares stood at 28 per cent for short-distance (regional) services – where a competition for the market regime had been established – and at 54 per cent in the rail cargo segment – which is governed by an open access regime. In this paper, based on a comparative institution analysis, we explore an alternative regulatory regime to substantially increase effective intramodal competition in Germany’s intercity rail passenger market: open access to the incumbent’s seat inventory. Our main finding is that, compared to the existing yet ineffective open (track) access regime, our proposed alternative considerably reduces entry barriers for newcomers and simplifies regulatory oversight given the specific features of Germany’s railway market.

This article aims at opening discussions and promoting future research about key elements that should be taken into account when considering new ways to organise access to personal data for scientific research in the perspective of developing innovative medicines. It provides an overview of these key elements: the different ways of accessing data, the theory of the essential facilities, the Regulation on the Free Flow of Non-personal Data, the Directive on Open Data and the re-use of public sector information, and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules on accessing personal data for scientific research. In the perspective of fostering research, promoting innovative medicines, and having all the raw data centralised in big databases localised in Europe, we suggest to further investigate the possibility to find acceptable and balanced solutions with complete respect of fundamental rights, as well as for private life and data protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The planning of spatial development through distributional equality in urban spaces provides realisation mechanisms for social equality. At the core of spatial equality is an attention to equal distribution of essential urban facilities, which in turn requires simultaneous attention to both spatial and non-spatial access criteria; in other words to ‘actual access’ based on real needs, on top of potential access based on density and conglomeration criteria. The aim of this research is to find analysis methods for spatial equality in Ardebil through an integrated assessment framework, with an emphasis on the concept of spatial equality. Furthermore, and in order to also taking actual demands into account, a mechanism is defined to combine demands by various age and educational groups using the access criterion. In order to do so, the four districts of Ardebil are assessed using new geographical analysis methods including improved two-stage influence domain method to assess potential spatial access to public transport, and three-stage influence domain method to assess potential access to educational, healthcare and cultural facilities, as well as multi-criterion spatial assessment methods and statistical analysis. The findings confirm that in terms of integrated spatial equality, the city’s District 1 is of higher deprivation rate—both in potential and actual demand. The output of this integrated model can easily be demonstrated and interpreted to support the decision-makings of urban planners.

Copyright of Österreichische Zeitschrift für Kartellrecht (ÖZK) is the property of Verlag Oesterreich GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

There is significant debate over whether there remains a last-mile broadband bottleneck. In this paper, we explore what might be the nature of this bottleneck and review options for regulatory responses. Building on our work in CommAct2021, we expand on our discussion of the need for a reformed Communications Act and FCC to have a capability to mandate shared access to potential bottleneck facilities in the Internet ecosystem. We explain why this framework will require public utility-like regulatory authority, which should be used sparingly since it conflicts with the desirable evolution toward light-handed market-based regulation underway. We review the lessons from earlier efforts to mandate sharing and explain why the earlier approach based on common carrier Title II is problematic and why we think our proposal for a new Title II as part of a new Communications Act offers a better path forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a possibility to apply the essential facilities doctrine to big data either in the US and EU. However, the application shall be limited in extreme scenarios and shall be examined cautiously and thoroughly by considering the dynamic and fast development of the digital economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the time when the first competition rules were adopted after the Velvet Revolution in early 1990s, Slovak competition law has undergone several changes. Three acts on economic competition were subsequently adopted (in 1991, 1994, 2001), each of them several times amended. Although Slovakia became a member of the EU in 2004, the convergence of national competition rules with the law of the European Union is evident in the significant changes that were introduced in 2004. The evolution of Slovak competition rules cannot be considered finished – major amendments are expected in 2014. The following paper will analyze in which aspects Slovak competition law is diverging from the rules of the European Union. Court jurisprudence reviewing administrative decisions issued in competition matters is also important in the assessment of the competition law environment. The paper will provide an overview of those features of Slovak competition law that shall be harmonised, as well as reasons for their harmonisations. Yet it must be stressed that European law is not the universal model of convergence and hence the paper will provide thoughts on which features of Slovak competition law might remain country-specific.

Patents grant their proprietors with a time-limited exclusive right to exclude competitors from economic exploitation of the patented invention during the patent protection term. Although in the pharmaceutical sector this right inevitably puts patent proprietors in a strong market position, they are not entirely immune from competition and intervention with their patent rights because of possible litigation or the grant of compulsory licences. Therefore, it can be said that patents have a probabilistic character because their true value depends on the chances of surviving litigation, if ever contested, of course. One of the means used by patent proprietors to avoid litigation is the use of voluntary licences, which provide an opportunity to control competitors while avoiding their patent value being contested in the court. It is thus appropriate to raise the question whether the voluntary licensing mechanism fulfils its function in the European pharmaceutical industry context or whether it is simply an additional means to exclude competition and control the innovation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reviews ICANN's treatment of applications to create new Top Level Domains based on generic terms (e.g..book,.motorcycles), reserved for exclusive use by the applicant. It finds little evidence in past domain name history that such registrations represented a risk to competition. Had applicants made abusive use of their domains then existing law would have provided appropriate remedies in any case. Theory suggests that such a novel market was unsuitable for prospective regulatory action and that, by converting potential monopolies into potential cartels, ICANN's action may even have made the competition risk worse. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Resilience has been defined as "the ability to prepare and plan for, absorb, recover from, and more successfully adapt to adverse events." The term resilience is applied to a range of topics including physical security, business continuity, emergency planning, hazard mitigation, and the built environment's (e.g., facilities, transportation systems, and utilities) ability to resist and rapidly recover from disruptive events. This paper focuses on research needs for achieving community resilience of the built environment. Community resilience depends upon the capacity of facilities and infrastructure systems to maintain acceptable levels of functionality during and after disruptive events and to recover full functionality within a specified period of time. Natural, technological, and human-made hazards in the United States continue to be responsible for significant losses and damage to the built environment. To improve the disaster resilience of communities to hazard events, each community needs to develop plans based on a risk-informed methodology that addresses multiple hazards, system performance levels, recovery of functionality, and dependencies between systems. However, quantitative tools and metrics and risk-informed guidance for communities are not presently available. A risk-informed methodology that supports decision making among alternatives for community resilience is proposed. Research needs are outlined for short-term and long-term development plans that are based on two national workshops in 2011. Research needs include risk-informed tools to support resilience planning at the community level, performance goals including functionality and recovery levels, multiple resilience levels, and standardized tools and metrics for community resilience and the built environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the regulation of intellectual property (IP) rights by the Indian competition law Competition Act 2002 which was implemented for protection of consumers by preventing practices that have an adverse effect on competition and ensuring the economic development.

Online platforms have the characteristics of a particular type of market known as ‘multi-sided’. These businesses create value by bringing advertisers and users together. Access to user data is critical to this process. On the basis of economic literature, the features of multi-sided platforms will be discussed. It will be argued that the characteristics of multi-sided platforms increase the likelihood that successful companies become dominant due to the existence of indirect network effects. In these circumstances, dominant platforms may foreclose competition by raising barriers to entry in the large collections of user data. This may give rise to access problems for competitors and new entrants that need access to data gathered by dominant platforms in order to provide competing or complementary services. A comparative legal analysis will be used to assess the standards that are applicable in the United States (US) and the European Union (EU) for finding liability for refusals to deal under antitrust or competition law. The private antitrust cases that have already occurred regarding access to user data in the US show that the scope of applicability of the US essential facilities doctrine is very limited after the judgment of the Supreme Court in Trinko . Although the European Commission and the European Court of Justice seem to be willing to accept liability for a refusal to deal more easily than their US counterparts, high legal hurdles still have to be met under the essential facilities doctrine in the EU. Nevertheless, there are scenarios in which liability for refusals to give access to data will likely be accepted in the EU. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper investigates the contributions of digital infrastructure policies of provincial governments in Canada to the development of broadband networks. Using measurements of broadband network speeds between 2007 and 2011, the paper analyzes potential causes for observed differences in network performance growth across the provinces, including geography, Internet use intensity, platform competition, and provincial broadband policies. The analysis suggests provincial policies that employed public sector procurement power to open access to essential facilities and channeled public investments in Internet backbone infrastructure were associated with the emergence of relatively high quality broadband networks. However, a weak essential facilities regime and regulatory barriers to entry at the national level limit the scope for decentralized policy solutions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Copyright of Revista Română de Drept al Afacerilor is the property of Wolters Kluwer Romania and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract: The pertinence of using an importance factor to promote an adequate structural and non-structural performance of essential facilities is studied. Although an importance factor of 1.5 may promote adequate performance of essential facilities built in firm soil; the value of this factor for structures built in soft soil exhibits significant dependence with respect to the dynamic characteristics of the structural system. Because of this, the current use given to the importance factor may result in conservative or unsafe design of essential facilities built in soft soils. One way to improve the seismic design of essential facilities is to formulate displacement-based approaches. Within this context, a displacement-based methodology should aim at controlling simultaneously the level of structural and non-structural damage by limiting the plastic rotation and inter-story drift demands in the structural system of the essential facility. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Whether the firms that supply Internet hardware and software should face restrictions on the use of their property is an important and controversial policy issue. Advocates of 'net neutrality'-including President Obama and the current FCC majority-believe that owners of broadband distribution systems (hardware used to distribute Internet and video services) and producers of certain 'must-have' video content should be subject to prophylactic regulation that transcends present-day antitrust law enforcement. In the economic terms that are used in debates on competition policy, the concern is with vertical integration that may give firms both the opportunity (through denial of access or price discrimination) and incentive (increased profit) to restrict competition. This paper's central point is that virtually every production process in the economy is vertically integrated, and economics predicts changes in the extent of vertical integration-that is, changes in the boundaries of the firm-in response to changes in relative prices, technology, or institutions. Both vertical integration and changes in the extent of vertical integration are benign characteristics of efficient, dynamic, competitive markets. While there is no shortage of theoretical models in which vertical integration may be harmful, most such models have restrictive assumptions and ambiguous welfare predictions-even when market power is assumed to be present. Empirical evidence that vertical integration or vertical restraints are harmful is weak, compared to evidence that vertical integration is beneficial-again, even in cases where market power appears to be present. Thus, it is reasonable to conclude that prophylactic regulation is not necessary, and may well reduce welfare. Sound policy is to wait for ex post evidence of harm to justify interventions in specific cases. Net neutrality, recently enacted by the FCC but subject to judicial review, is an unfortunate idea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper explores the effects of network unbundling in telecommunications. It includes discussions of the basic economics of unbundling; the competitive effects of unbundling on voice services in the US and broadband in the US and the European Union; and unbundling policy in a world of convergence. Mandatory unbundling can delay facilities-based entry and reduce network investment, particularly if unbundled input prices are set too low. Excessive prices for essential network elements could hamper competitive entry. Some argue that mandatory unbundling has stimulated competition; however, the results suggest that when relevant demand and supply determinants are included in the analysis, the association between mandatory unbundling and increased broadband penetration is not statistically significant. Assessing the costs and benefits of unbundling is more difficult because of convergence and intermodal competition among the video, wireless and telephone providers. Thus, the dynamic nature of the sector and the costs of implementing mandatory unbundling imply that policy makers should carefully examine the costs and benefits of regulatory intervention. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The essential facility doctrine lies at the core of telecoms regulation since its very first steps in the United States and in the European Union. Later, the doctrine spread around the world and currently stands as a key pillar of the liberalization efforts underway in several countries. However, the concept of essential facility is a very dynamic one in the telecoms field, which makes it hard for regulators and regulated stakeholders to strike the right balance between incentives to invest in new infrastructure and securing access-based competition in the short run. Experiment such as the “stepping stones” approach in the US and the “investment ladder” approach in the EU have led to very mixed results, in the US, the FCC eventually abandoned this approach to stimulate investment in new high-speed infrastructure through “access holidays”. The decline of the essential facilities doctrine in the US was not echoed by any relaxation of regulatory obligations in the EU, Canada and other countries, to the contrary, the US now seems likely to reconsider the essential facilities doctrine, at least in the application of antitrust law. Whether this will lead to a revival of the doctrine in the US and around the world, especially for next generation access networks, remains to be seen. The paper argues that interpreting the concept of essential facilities too broadly is likely to lead to insufficient incentives to invest in the future, it is thus advisable to get back to a narrow interpretation of this doctrine, in order to strike the right balance between the incentives to engage in infrastructure-based competition and the goal of boosting service-based competition in the short-term. Several debates that are currently raging around the world—including the debate over NGA deployment and the net neutrality querelle—are likely to be affected by the essential facilities doctrine in the years to come. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Liberalization in telecommunications has led to market competition even at local telephony level. This article deals with a competitor's decision to enter the market, with the later competition in prices, and with the consumers' decision to choose their provider. We assume a deregulated market with a credible theat of hard re-regulation in the case that prices go beyond a maximum cap. The government set this price cap before the enter occurs. The main result of this work refers to the fact that the new company will cover not above 40% of the market; meaning that potential entry and facilities based competiton will produce a market with companies of different sizes. We also find that the entry policy with asymmetric access charges, favorable to the entrant, would only increase the entrant's equilibrium coverage to the extent mentioned, a policy paid by consumers because prices in increase equilibrium. In terms of efficiency, the assisted entry produce welfare loss for both consumers and society at large. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A regulatory policy known as imputation has been recommended and applied in situations where a regulated firm with monopoly power over an essential input faces the threat of entry in one or more of its downstream markets. This policy generally imposes a price floor on the regulated firm''s downstream output equal to the price it charges for the input plus the incremental cost of transforming a unit of that input into a unit of the final output. Such a floor is intended to prevent the regulated company from implementing predatory and/or preemptive pricing strategies against its downstream rivals.In this paper, the authors demonstrate the need for an imputation-type policy to safeguard downstream entrants from exclusionary pricing strategies by the vertically integrated incumbent. At the same time, however, the paper also illustrates several strategies available to the vertically integrated firm that can render imputation ineffective against such exclusionary conduct. It concludes, therefore, that imputation is unlikely to (effectively) protect new entrants that attempt to compete at the downstream stage. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The California Geological Survey issued a new regulatory directive specifying that critical buildings be designed for 50- and 100-year earthquakes obtained by probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA). PSHA incorporates serious uncertainties. Chiefly, they are: (1) PSHA smears earthquakes together to produce motions that are unrealistic for any specific earthquake-generating fault source, (2) PSHA assumes there is an essentially log–linear predictability through time for both the sizes of earthquakes and their motions, although earthquake experiences deny this assumption, and (3) PSHA derives design values from an almost total lack of data on the recurrences that it claims to represent. Error bands for probabilistic motions, if honestly applied, would be so enormously broad that probabilistic values would be seen to be too uncertain as a rational basis for critical designs. Worse yet, the directive of the California Geological Survey has forced a de facto elimination of deterministic seismic hazard analysis (DSHA) from consideration. Yet, DSHA provides more logical, more transparent, more peer reviewable, and more dependable solutions than does PSHA. In summary, the new regulatory directive fails to provide the public in California with a necessary level of seismic safety. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]