Excessive Prices Within EU Competition Law

"An excessive price is a price set by a dominant undertaking excessively above the competitive level in order to exploit its customers. This purpose of exploitation makes an excessive price essentially different from a disguised refusal to supply or a variant of price squeezes. A disguised refusal to supply may take the form of an unacceptably high price with the intention to deny the request of supply. A price squeeze may be committed by imposing a high price on an upstream market while maintaining or decreasing the price at the related downstream level. However, both a refusal to deal and a price squeeze are aimed at excluding competitors, rather than exploiting consumers. While the devastating effect of excessive prices on consumer welfare is notorious, the prohibition of excessive prices falls into the most controversial subjects both in economics and law in the EU."