Just Saying No

In the EU, Article 102 TFEU prohibits the abuse of a dominant position, where dominance is "a position of economic strength which enables a company to prevent effective competition by affording it the power to behave to an appreciable extent independently of its competitors, customers and ultimately consumers". 

The provision curtails the commercial freedom of companies that are dominant (for example, in designing and deploying rebate schemes) and the European Commission has used Article 102 to carry out some of its most high profile market interventions, including to sanction behaviour by Microsoft, Intel and AstraZeneca.  

A supplier in a dominant position that refuses to continue to meet the ordinary orders of an existing customer risks falling foul of Article 102, unless it has an objective justification for the refusal.  Stopping supplies in order to prevent or restrict parallel trading by customers is not an objective justification. This means that care