The Foundations of European Union Competition Law The Objective and Principles of Article 102

by Nazzini, Renato

• ISBN13: 9780199226153
• ISBN10: 0199226156
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-02-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Article 82 of the EC Treaty prohibits the abuse of a dominant position as incompatible with the common market. Its application in practice has been wide-ranging with goals as diverse as the preservation of an undistorted competitive process, the protection of economic freedom, the maximization of consumer welfare, total welfare, or economic efficiency all cited as possible or desirable objectives. These conflicting aims have raised complex, conceptual questions such as how a dominant position should be defined, and how abuses can be assessed. This book addresses the conceptual questions underlying the test to be applied under Article 82 in light of the objectives of EU competition law. Adopting a comparative and interdisciplinary approach, the book covers all the main issues relating to Article 82, including the definition of dominance, the taxonomy of abuses, and the criteria for the assessment of individual abusive practices. It provides an in-depth doctrinal and normative commentary of the case law with the aim of establishing an intellectually robust and practically workable analytical framework for abuse of dominance.

Author Biography

Renato Nazzini is Reader in law at the University of Southampton. He holds doctorates from the Universities of Milan and London. Previously in private practice and then at the UK Office of Fair Trading, he has advised on cases involving alleged predatory/excess pricing, predatory pricing, parallel imports, margin squeeze, and financial services and has been involved in policy formulation at the OFT and as UK representative at the European Competition Network (the network of EU competition authorities coordinated by the European Commission) and at the OECD.

Table of Contents

The Problem and the Structure of the Inquiry

The Objective of EU Competition Law

The Test for Abuse of Dominance and Whether It Includes Purely Exploitative 'Abuses'

The Proof of the Infringement

The Role of Dominance

Taxonomy of Abuses

Exclusionary Abuses

Discrimination

Intellectual Property Rights, Dynamic Efficiency, and Competition Law

Critique of Sector-specific Approaches to Article 82

From Theory to Practice: The Role of Error Costs in the Application of Article 82 in the EU

Establishing an Analytical Framework for Abuse of Dominance

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