Competition law, at both the Community and UK levels, plays an everincreasing role in regulating the conduct of businesses. Competition law can affect business contracts, takeovers and mergers, co-ordinated actions, pricing behaviour, incentives to innovate and State subsidies. Competition law has assumed a crucial role in monitoring national and European markets, seeking to ensure workable competitive markets and, to a limited extent, 'fair play' on the level playing field created in the European single market. As businesses struggle to come to terms with the implications and impact of competition law, they require graduates aware of the significance and effect of the provisions of both national and European competition law. As competition law is loosely based on a mixture of economics and politics, and has tended, historically at least in a European context, to be enforced administratively, its basic tenets have proved difficult for students to understand and apply with confidence. This book seeks to provide a clear guide to, and outline of, the main provisions and policies shaping Community and UK competition law, in a structured framework. The book is designed to be user-friendly by encouraging the examination of competition law in context. It incorporates a glossary of useful terminology and sections at the end of each chapter for discussion and further reading. The book is aimed principally at any competition law students - BA and LLB - as a course textbook and will also be of assistance (as an introductory guide) for postgraduate students and practitioners of competition law.