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, Russia

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Background and main problems Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port PJSC (“NCSP”) is one of the Europe’s largest port operator in terms of cargo turnover and the leader in the Russian market. The Federal Antimonopoly Service (the “FAS”) found that NCSP abused its dominant position, by fixing and maintaining monopolistically high prices in 2015 for transshipment services…

Abuse of dominance, Dawn raids, India

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Introduction The Supreme Court of India in its order dated 15 January, 2019 ratified the power of the Office of Director General (DG), i.e., the investigating arm of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to conduct ‘search and seizure’ operations. This order comes in light of a protracted dispute with JCB India Private Limited (JCB)….

Abuse of dominance, Big data, Data protection, Facebook, Germany, Online platforms

(Heinz & Zagrosek Partner mbB, Germany)/ /Leave a comment

On February 7, 2019, Germany’s Federal Cartel Office (“FCO”) issued its long-awaited decision in the Facebook case, see press release and background paper in English here. It qualifies Facebook’s current practice of collecting and matching data of its users from third-party services/websites, including on What’sApp and Instagram, without explicit consent as an abuse of dominance.  Facebook…

Abuse of dominance, Antitrust, Denmark

(Szecskay Attorneys-at-Law, Hungary)/ /Leave a comment

Antitrust enforcers are good at regularly reminding the competition law community that the various forms of abuse of dominance listed in Article 102 TFEU are not exhaustive. Indeed, the idea of what conduct falls outside “competition on the merits” is ever evolving. And this can make it difficult for practitioners to set clear lines on…

Abuse of dominance, Bulgaria

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A fine of slightly above EUR 400 000 was imposed to the biggest Bulgarian telecom operator – A1 Bulgaria, member of Telekom Austria Group (“A1”) for abuse of stronger bargaining position in its contractual relationship with its former sales representative – Handy Bulgaria (“Handy”). The relationship between the two companies started back in 2005, when Handy…

Abuse of dominance, European Court of Justice, European Union, Jurisdiction clauses, Private actions

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The European Court of Justice (CJEU) held recently in Apple Sales International v MJA acting as liquidator of eBizcuss.com[1] that claims alleging abuse of a dominant position could come within the terms of a jurisdiction clause even where the clause did not expressly refer to claims based on competition law.   Relevant Rules The rules…

Abuse of dominance, Türkiye

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The tech giant Google[1] has been under the Turkish Competition Authority’s (“TCA”) scrutiny due to its practices in the market for licensable mobile operating systems and under the judicial review since July 2015. In September 2018, the TCA has finally released its short decision and imposed a fine of TRY 93 million (approximately USD 15…

Abuse of dominance, Antitrust, Big data, Competition law, Economics, Enforcement, Germany

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

On September 4, 2018, the German Ministry for Economic Affairs has published a report by economic and legal experts analyzing some key issues of abuse of market power in the digital platform economy (see an English summary here.) The report provides an overview of the status quo and recommendations, and is understood to be the…

Abuse of dominance, India, Predatory pricing

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Predatory Pricing is often described as pricing of any commodity below a suitable value for the purpose of ousting competitors in the short run and abating competition in the long run. A practice which is detrimental to both competitors and competition, the same proves to be a barrier for market growth as well. Usually, the…

Abuse of dominance, Argentina, Discriminatory pricing, Excessive pricing

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In a decision released in July 2018, the Secretary of Commerce –following the recommendations of the Argentinean Antitrust Commission (CNDC) – imposed a fine worth AR$42.7 million (approximately US$1.5 million) to the Argentinean Society of Music Authors and Composers (SADAIC) for abusing its dominant position in breach of the Antitrust Law No. 27,442 (the “Antitrust…