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

The definition of the relevant market is established according to principles similar to those of the law on dominance . As the market is only one aspect for the measuring of  monopoly power, the competition authorities frequently decline to choose between various market definitions after having found that the notified transaction would not be held incompatible, even by adopting the narrowest defin …

Relativity

The definition of the relevant market is established according to principles similar to those of the law on dominance . As the market is only one aspect for the measuring of  monopoly power, the competition authorities frequently decline to choose between various market definitions after having found that the notified transaction would not be held incompatible, even by adopting the narrowest definition  or that the new entity would not be in a dominant position, regardless of the market retained .

Furthermore, the fact that two products do not belong to the same market does not prevent one from exerting competitive pressure for the competitive assessment of the proposed operation. Thus, even though it is not appropriate from the demand or from the supply side, to consider legal and illegal music as part of the same relevant product market for the wholesale of recorded music, insofar as, regardless of whether legal and illegal music are to be considered as substitutes from the point of view of end users, they do not appear to be substitutes from the point of view of the record companies' direct customers i.e. physical and digital music retailers, pirate services can still exert an out-of-market constraint on pricing and output decisions of the record companies .

The market definition used in the context of the review of State aid is not binding on the competition authorities when they are ruling on the compatibility of a merger with the internal market .

See Commission Notice C/204/1645 of 8 February 2024, repealing Notice 97/C/372 on the definition of relevant market for the purposes of competition law. Review by the EU judicature of the definition of the relevant market is a minimal control which is carried out "[taking] account of the discretionary margin implicit in the provisions of an economic nature": Case C-68/94 France and Société commerciale des potasses et de l'azote and Entreprise minière et chimique v Commission [1998] ECR I-1375, LawLex200500004280JBJ; Case T-102/96 Gencor v Commission [1997] ECR II-879, LawLex200500004258JBJ.

Commission Decision M.445 of 7 June 1994, BSN/Euralim (not available in English): determining whether all the sterilized, frozen and fresh products and the various kinds of dishes constitute only one market of ready-made dishes or as many separate product markets where the concentration does not lead to the creation or further strengthening of a dominant position, even by retaining the narrowest definition, is useless; M.442 of 29 July 1994, Elf Atochem/Rütgers (not available in English): the transaction that does not lead to the creation or further strengthening of a dominant position, even in the most restrictive case of the narrowest credible markets, it is not required to decide whether the relevant product market may be split up in two large categories of products; JV.18 of 1st June 1999, Chronopost/Correos (not available in English): where the new entity's market share does not exceed 15% to 25%, based on the most restrictive definition of the market for express parcel and document delivery ("business to business", mono-parcel or freight delivery), the concentration does not create or strengthen a dominant position.

Commission Decision M.254 of 5 November 1992, Fortis/La Caixa (not available in English): the question of whether each insurance corresponds to a separate market may remain unanswered; M.784 of 20 November 1996, Kesko/Tuko, LawLex200500004387JBJ: the geographic scope of the relevant market has not to be taken into consideration where the new entity's market share is of the same order whether assessed on national, regional or local level; M.1033 of 23 December 1997, AXA-UAP/AXA Aurora (not available in English): where the concentration deals with the fields of insurance, and mainly life-insurance and car insurance, it is not necessary to define the product markets with more details since the effect of the transaction would not be to significantly impede competition in the EEA or a substantial part of it, regardless of the markets retained; M.1601 of 1st December 1999, AlliedSignal/Honeywell, LawLex200400002637JBJ: it does not matter whether ACAS processors and mode S transponders belong to the same market or not where the competitive analysis remains unchanged; M.1879 of 29 September 2000, Boeing/Hughes, LawLex200500004732JBJ: given than, in all geographic market definitions considered, effective competition would not be significantly impeded in the EEA or any substantial part of it, it is not necessary to decide whether the relevant markets are world markets or only national markets where, in all geographic definitions retained, competition would not be significantly impeded; Case T-374/00 Verband der freien Rohrwerke and others v Commission [2003] ECR II-2275, LawLex200500004273JBJ: it is not required to decide whether the relevant market is a world market or is limited to the EEA where the concentration in question does not have anticompetitive horizontal effects in all geographic markets retained.

Commission Decision M.6458 of 21 September 2012, Universal Music Group/EMI Music, LawLex201700000666JBJ.

Case T-162/10 Niki Luftfahrt, Judgment of 13 May 2015, LawLex201700001313JBJ.

European Competition Law

324. Relativity

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

324. Relativity

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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