Abuse of dominance

Anticompetitive business practices in which a dominant firm may engage in order to maintain or increase its position in the market. These business practices by the firm, not without controversy, may be considered as “abusive or improper exploitation” of monopolistic control of a market aimed at restricting competition. The term abuse of dominant position has been explicitly incorporated in competition legislation of various countries such as Canada, the EU and Germany. In the United States, the counterpart provisions would be those dealing with monopoly and attempts to monopolize or monopolization of a market.

Source: OECD

Abuse of dominance, Excessive pricing, United Kingdom

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Summary On 10 March 2020 the Court of Appeal upheld the Competition Appeal Tribunal’s (CAT) quashing of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA)  decision that Pfizer and Flynn Pharma (Flynn) had abused their dominant positions in the market by pricing their epilepsy drug unfairly. Among other aspects, the Court of Appeal broadly upheld the CAT’s…

Abuse of dominance, Antitrust, Big data, Canada, Competition law, Competition policy, Digital competition, Digital markets, Digitisation, E-commerce, E-communications, Enforcement, Merger control, Merger regulation, Mergers, Minority shareholding

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The Davies Forecast of Top 5 Trends and Issues for Canadian Competition Law in 2020 Jim Dinning, Anita Banicevic and Mark Katz Here is Davies’ annual forecast of Canadian competition law developments for the year ahead. 1. FOCUS ON THE DIGITAL ECONOMY Given the Competition Bureau’s stated priorities during the tenure of current Commissioner of…

Abuse of dominance, Postal services, United Kingdom

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UK Competition Appeal Tribunal Judgment: Pushing the Envelope on Abuse of Dominance The CAT’s Royal Mail v Ofcom judgment considers what constitutes abusive conduct, the “as-efficient competitor” test, and the use of expert economic advice.   On 12 November 2019, the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal (the CAT) published its judgment rejecting Royal Mail’s appeal against…

Abuse of dominance, Cartels, Merger control, Spain

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2019 was an eventful year in Spanish antitrust enforcement. Here is a brief overview of 2019’s major legal changes and relevant developments in relation to Competition law in Spain, as well as what to expect in 2020.        I.         New Administration On 8 January 2020, Mr Pedro Sánchez was reappointed as Spanish Prime Minister….

Abuse of dominance, Bulgaria, Electricity

(Eversheds Sutherland, Bulgaria) and (Tsvetkova, Bebov and Partners)/ /1 Comment

The Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition (“BCPC”) imposed a fine amounting to BGN 315 612 the National Electricity Company EAD (“NEK”) for abuse of dominance – infringement of Art. 21, para. 1 of the Bulgarian Competition Protection Act (“BCPA”) (corresponding to Art. 102 TFEU). The BCPC found that NEK unilaterally and unjustifiably modified the…

Abuse of dominance, Antitrust, Canada, Competition, Competition law, Competition policy

(Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP, Canada)/ /Leave a comment

Recent Developments in Abuse of Dominance Law in Canada: When is Anti-Competitive Conduct Justified? Charles Tingley and Mark Katz On October 17, 2019, the Canadian Competition Tribunal dismissed an application by the Commissioner of Competition alleging that the Vancouver Airport Authority (VAA) had abused a dominant position in the market for in-flight catering services at…

Abuse of dominance, Competition, Netherlands

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This blog is written by Pauline Kuipers and Janneke Kohlen, Bird & Bird LLP Introduction The Dutch competition authority, ACM, initiated a market study in 2018 into the effect of the introduction of biosimilars on the competition between TNF alfa inhibitors. TNF-alfa inhibitors are biological medicines that are mainly used by rheumatoid arthritis patients, but…

Abuse of dominance, India, Predatory pricing

(Jindal Initiative on Research in IP and Competition (JIRICO))/ /Leave a comment

The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has dismissed an appeal[1] filed by Uber India Systems Pvt. Ltd. (‘Uber’) against an order of the erstwhile Competition Appellate Tribunal (‘COMPAT’) wherein the COMPAT had ordered an investigation into allegations of abuse of dominance against Uber in the region of NCR. The Hon’ble Supreme Court has observed that…

Abuse of dominance, India

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On 9th August 2019, the Competition Commission of India directed the Director General to carry out investigations against Intel Corporation for allegedly violating Section 3 and 4 of the Indian Competition Act, 2002 (the ‘Act’).[1] The case in hand was filed by Matrix Info Systems Pvt. Ltd. (the Informant) under Section 19(1)(a) of the Act…

Abuse of dominance, Digital markets, E-commerce, Enforcement, Germany

(Heinz & Zagrosek Partner mbB, Germany)/ /1 Comment

On July 17, 2019, the German Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office, “FCO”) terminated its dominance probe into Amazon’s business terms towards sellers on its marketplace after Amazon agreed to various changes, see press release here here. Amazon will implement the changes within 30 days, not only in Germany, but for all of its marketplaces in Europe,…