In October 2024, CREATe members David Reader and Magali Eben contributed to the European Commission’s Consultation on its draft Guidelines on exclusionary abuse of dominance.
As the European Commission emphasises, the enforcement of Article 102 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (‘TFEU’) is key to ensuring that competition works effectively and that consumers can reap the benefits of competitive markets. Article 102 the prohibits dominant companies from engaging in abusive practices that are capable of exclusionary effects. This is one of the few areas of European competition law where no Guidelines clarify the application of the rules of the Treaty. Until now, we had only Guidance on Enforcement priorities. Therefore, on 27 March 2023 the Commission launched the process leading to the adoption of guidelines on exclusionary abuses with a Call for Evidence, followed by a Consultation on a draft version of the Guidelines which closed in October 2024. The Commission emphasised that the draft Guidelines aim at reflecting the EU courts’ case law on exclusionary abuses in light of the extensive experience gained by the Commission in the enforcement of Article 102 TFEU. This will help increasing legal certainty to the benefit of consumers, businesses and the national competition authorities and national courts.
The response to that consultation by David and Magali can be found below.
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