European Competition Law provides a wide-ranging review of the European rules relating to competition: restrictive agreements, abuse of a dominant position, impact of intellectual property rights, procedure, merger control, State aid.

European Competition Law

Cooperation between competing buyers can appreciably reduce competition by means of creating buying power. Buyer power must not be used to foreclose the market to competitors or to cause their costs to increase. Equally, an agreement between competing producers is unlawful where it sets up an aggregated rebate system without taking into account purchases of other producers not party to the agreeme …

Discrimination

Boycotts consist in the elimination of a competitor by calling for measures of collective retaliation or by organizing a collective refusal to contract by application of an exclusivity clause . The implementing of a commercial policy reserving products or services to authorized customers in order to combat parallel trade can also characterize a boycott . Even the threat of a boycott can suffice . Boycotts are amongst the most serious infringements of the rules of competition because they lead to the elimination of a competitor from the market. The anticompetitive character of such practices can be established purely from their object  and the infringement can be attributed to an undertaking without it having actually participated or even implemented the measures of the boycott .

Case 8/72 Vereeniging van Cementhandelaren v Commission [1972] ECR 977, LawLex200500004037JBJ; Cases 209/78 through 215/78 and 218/78 Van Landewyck v Commission [1980] ECR 3125, LawLex200500004028JBJ; Case 126/80, Salonia v Poidomani e Giglio [1981] ECR 1563, LawLex200400002966JBJ; Cases 43/82 and 63/82 VBVB and VBBB v Commission EEC [1984] ECR 19, LawLex200400003590JBJ; Case 243/83 Binon v AMP [1985] ECR 2015, LawLex200500004001JBJ; Case 246/86 Belasco and others v Commission [1989] ECR 2117, LawLex200500003932JBJ; Commission Decisions No 91/300 of 19 December 1990, Soda-ash - ICI, LawLex200400002920JBJ cancelled for non-compliance with the rights of defense by Case T-30/91 Solvay v Commission [1995] ECR II-1775, LawLex200500005008JBJ; Cases T-213/95 and T-18/96 SCK and FNK v Commission [1997] ECR II-1739, LawLex200400003638JBJ; Cases T-5/00 and T-6/00 DEP Nederlandse Federatieve Vereniging voor de Groothandel op Elektrotechnisch Gebied v Commission [2003] ECR II-5761, LawLex200500004837JBJ. Exclusivity clauses may be justified in exceptional cases if they are based on objective criteria.

Case C-70/93 Bayerische Motorenwerke v ALD [1995] ECR I-3439, LawLex200400003645JBJ; Commission Decision No 2003/675/EC of 30 October 2002, PO Video Games/ PO Nintendo Distribution/ Omega-Nintendo, LawLex200500004659JBJ.

Commission Decision No 78/670/EEC of 20 July 1978, Fedetab, LawLex200500004087JBJ, for measures taken by an association of manufacturers relating to the requirement to hold a minimum range of brands under penalty of boycott.

Commission Decision No 74/431/EEC of 23 July 1974, Papiers peints de Belgique, LawLex200400003281JBJ: regardless of the source of the boycott (the debts of a dealer or the non-compliance with the general terms of sale and prices imposed by the latter cannot justify the boycott).

Case T-16/99 Lögstör Rör v Commission [2002] ECR II-1633, LawLex200500004886JBJ and Case T-21/99 Dansk Rørindustri v Commission [2002] ECR II-1681, LawLex200500004934JBJ; Case T-23/99 LR AF 1998 v Commission [2002] ECR II-1705, LawLex200500003900JBJ; Case T-9/99 HFB and others v Commission [2002] ECR II-1487, LawLex200500004931JBJ; Case C-189/02 P, C-202/02 P, C-205/02 P à C-208/02 P and C-213/02 P Dansk Rørindustri and others v Commission [2005] ECR I-5425, LawLex200600002415JBJ.

Boycotts

Cooperation between competing buyers can appreciably reduce competition by means of creating buying power. Buyer power must not be used to foreclose the market to competitors or to cause their costs to increase. Equally, an agreement between competing producers is unlawful where it sets up an aggregated rebate system without taking into account purchases of other producers not party to the agreement in the calculation of the aggregated rebate rate, thus encouraging clients to concentrate their orders on the participants to the agreement and resulting in the application of dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties .

Commission Decision No 71/23/EEC of 29 December 1970, Décision sur les rabais de la Communauté d'intérêts des fabricants allemands de carreaux céramiques de revêtement et de pavement [not available in English].

European Competition Law

85. Discrimination

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Les notions juridiques connexes

85. Discrimination

Demandez un accès gratuit au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise

Les notions juridiques connexes

Demandez un accès gratuit
au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise