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

Where it finds the existence of an infringement, the Commission has a discretionary power as laid down in Articles 7 to 10 of Regulation No 1/2003. It may require the parties to bring the infringement to an end and impose on the parties any necessary behavioral or structural remedies (Regulation No 1/2003, Article 7). In case of urgency, it may order interim measures to bring to an end any serious and irreparable damage (Regulation No 1/2003, Article 8). Where the parties offer the Commission commitments to meet the competition concerns raised by it, the Commission may by decision make those commitments binding on them (Regulation No 1/2003, Article 9). Lastly, where the EU public interest so requires, the Commission may find that Article 101 is not applicable either because the conditions of Article 101(1) are not fulfilled, or because the conditions of Article 101(3) are satisfied. In such a case, it may deliver its decision, acting on its own initiative (Regulation No 1/2003, Article 10). It may also impose fines (Regulation No 1/2003, Article 23) or periodic penalty payments (Regulation No 1/2003, Article 24). Those pecuniary sanctions must however be distinguished from each other. Unlike fines, periodic penalty payments do not penalize the direct breach of a provision of EU law; their purpose is to force undertakings to enforce the decision that the Commission has adopted against them. By contrast, both fines and periodic penalty payments are likely to be imposed in order to ensure the effectiveness of procedural or substantial rules.

246. Decision-making power