This report has three main aims: a) to highlight the main issues that arise in the global food system arising from the application of mainstream European Union (EU) competition law; b) to discuss how social and environmental sustainability could be integrated into the current structure of EU competition law and suggest needed legal and political interventions; c) to identify concrete possibilities of engagement and those areas of substantive and procedural competition law that could be leveraged in order to improve the social and environmental quality of the global food system.

The underlying research was carried out using a combination of:

1. desk-based research (including reviews of academic literature and case law);
2. assessment of concrete examples and third parties’ initiatives (field studies, reports, and reportages); and
3. collection of opinion — through semi-structured interviews — from academics, civil society and practitioners who are directly involved in the study and/or implementation of EU competition law.