Press Release: Competition: Commission publishes discussion paper on abuse of dominance

The European Commission published on 19 December 2005 a Staff Discussion Paper on the application of EC Treaty competition rules on the abuse of a dominant market position (Article 82). The Discussion Paper was designed to promote a debate on how best to protect EU markets from dominant companies’ exclusionary conduct, conduct which risks weakening competition in a market. The paper suggests a framework for the continued rigorous enforcement of Article 82, building on the economic analysis carried out in recent cases, and setting out one possible methodology for the assessment of some of the most common abusive practices, such as tying, and rebates and discounts. Other forms of abuse, such as discriminatory and exploitative conduct, will be the subject of further work by the Commission in 2006. The deadline for submission of comments on the discussion paper is 31 March 2006.

• Primary Source

European Commission: Memo: MEMO/05/486 http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/05/486&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

European Commission: DG Competition: Antitrust: Other documents: Article 82 Review http://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/art82/index.html

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