The German and Romanian Abuse of Market Dominance in the Light of Article 102 TFEU

Abstract

The book approaches the substantive provisions on the abuse of dominance by undertakings, the relevant economic and historically rooted approaches, including EU competition policy goals after Lisbon, based on the German and Romanian legal context, competition enforcement and experience. It analyses the relevance of stricter national rules especially of non-dominant undertakings based on traders’ performance as a distinct field of law focused on the exploitative abuse as unfair methods of competition. It highlights how the Commission’s Guidance Paper included an incipient model of more effects-based competition law that departs from the static market structure focus on exclusionary abuse and focuses on harm and efficiencies. It also covers recent cases on the misuse of intellectual and industrial property rights, including unified standards and smaller businesses, and explains the thin borderline between free and fair competition based on open markets and public policy, with innovation balancing respectively. The book gradually advances new interpretations of Article 102 TFEU to include dynamic competition and concludes with a developing Union trading law in need of a Regulation governing aspects of fair competition and relevant administrative criteria.

Keywords: EU competition law, Article 102 TFEU, German, Romanian competition law, abuse of dominant position, fair competition