Collective Dominance: Its Intepretation and Assesment after Airtour in Merger Control

Abstract

On 6 June 2002, the European Court of Justice made its landmark judgment about collective dominance, in stated that for collective dominance to exist need the three criteria to be fulfilled. The Commission on is an assessment in merger control using a legal approach which was proving the market structure, to strengthen of collective dominance that can significantly impede competition which prohibited in the European Union legal order.

After the Judgement in which the way the Commission assess collective dominance in proposed concentration criticized by the Court. The Commission finally embrace economic nature in their assessment. It started to make the term collective dominance redundant in assessing the distortion on the market after the concentrations. Finally, the Commission focused on discovering implicit collusion. In summary, the analyses of the cases show that the assessments of collective dominance prior and then afterward the Airtours case are much varied.

Keywords: Collective Dominance, Merger Control, Implicit Collusion, Airtours Case

JEL Classification: L41, L44, L51