Competition Newsflash - February 2023

The Unilever Court Case: national competition authorities can no longer simply disregard evidence submitted by parties allowed to be heard

1. Introduction

On 19 January 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered a groundbreaking ruling stating that national competition authorities (hereafter, "NCAs") can no longer disregard the "as efficient competitor test" (hereafter, "AEC test") when the undertaking under suspicion puts forward evidence based on this test to dispute the actual ability of an exclusionary practice (in this case, an exclusivity clause) to restrict competition.

This Newsflash highlights the most important aspects of the preliminary ruling and discusses its key consequences. Before getting into the details of the ruling, the facts leading to the case will be briefly explained.