ECJ Gives More Guidance On Margin Squeeze Rules

In a judgment dated 17 February 2011, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) responded to a series of questions referred to it by the Stockholm District Court concerning the criteria for establishing an anti-competitive margin squeeze.  Only four months ago, the ECJ provided definitive clarification of the rules for margin squeezes and also confirmed that a margin squeeze may constitute a stand-alone abuse of a dominant position under Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (see our earlier  Law-Now on the 14 October 2010 Deutsche Telekom judgment).

A "margin squeeze" occurs when a company which is dominant in an upstream input market charges its downstream competitors an unfair price for its upstream input.  The Swedish competition authority had brought proceedings against TeliaSonera, the historical operator of the Swedish fixed telephone network, alleging an illegal margin squeeze between the price it charged for access to its network and