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Competition Law, the Dominant Position Essay

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Critically discuss how Articles 102 have been implemented in order to pursue anticompetitive practices. Illustrate your answer with relevant case law.
This essay concerns on aspects of the European Union competition law and how it pursue anticompetitive practices. Article 102 TFEI which deals with situation of abuse of a dominant position in European Union competition law. The main objective of the competition law is to enhance efficiency for example maximise consumer welfare and allocation of resources; protect consumers and smaller firms; and facilitate creation of Single European Market.
Article 102 also has pursued anti-competitive through restrict any abuse by one or more undertaking of a dominant position within the internal …show more content…

There may be legal, technical or practical reasons why a product only competes within a limited area of the EC. And lastly for the temporal market, a market may vary over time. Seasonal variation may affect production. Different relevant market would need different market share to satisfy the dominant position. For example in United Brands Company v Commission, 41-45% of banana market share would consider as dominant in the banana market. In AKZO Chemie BV v Commission, 50% market share of the organic peroxides flour additives market.
Dominance in particular market is illegal but there needs to be an abuse of that power. Article 102 has laid down some examples of abusive conduct and the two main forms of abusive conduct are exploitative abuses which the concern is that the monopolist will be in a position to maximise profits by reducing output and increasing his' price. He will exploit his customers and exclusionary abuses which the dominant undertaking adopts behaviour which would be considered legitimate if the undertaking had no market power but may cause serious concerns when a position of market domination is held. In Michelin the court held an undertaking in a dominant position has "a special responsibility not to allow its conduct to impair undistorted competition on the Common Market".
There are examples of exploitative abuse. The

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