European Commission Reviews Rules on Dominance

As part of its programme to modernise competition law, the European Commission has now turned its attentions to Article 82 of the EC Treaty. Article 82 (and its equivalent Chapter II of the Competition Act in the UK) prohibits companies that are in a dominant position from abusing that position.

In a recent speech, Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes set out the key issues on which the Commission's review will focus. The Commission anticipates producing a set of guidelines, founded on sound economic principles, to illustrate how it intends to apply Article 82 to the most frequently encountered types of behaviour going forwards. Businesses should welcome this move which should lead to more transparency and certainty in the way that the Commission enforces Article 82.