Legal Restraints on Single-Firm Conduct in the Digital Age: The Global Antitrust Institute’s Comment on the European Commission’s “Call for Evidence” and Concurrent Announcements Regarding Exclusionary Abuses of Dominance Under Article 102, Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union

Abstract

The European Commission recently announced key amendments to its main enforcement policy statement regarding exclusionary abuses of dominance, known as the 2008 Guidance. Simultaneously, the Commission announced it will issue draft Guidelines on this same subject for public comment in “mid-2024.” Several of the amendments involve important and controversial competition policy issues and seem based upon debatable views of EC law. Resolution of these issues could have important global economic impact. Because these amendments were announced without prior public notice, they should be subjected to more searching public scrutiny and debate prior to implementation and before issuance of draft Guidelines.

Keywords: Exclusionary abuse, abuse of dominance, Article 102 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, as-efficient-competitor test, effective competitive structure

JEL Classification: K21, L41