Antitrust
Art 82 review
Note to the reader: All references to Art 82 EC should be understood as references to the current article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (as renamed by the Treaty of Lisbon, which entered into force on 1 December 2009). More information on these changes.
Outcome of the review
03.12.2008 Guidance on its enforcement priorities in applying Article 82 (EC) to abusive exclusionary conduct by dominant undertakings. The guidance was formally adopted in all Union languages on 9 February 2009.
Press release - Frequently asked questions
Background information on the review
The guidance paper sets out an economic and effects-based approach to exclusionary conduct under EC antitrust law. Such an approach has already been used in recent Article 82 cases, including Wanadoo, Microsoft (see questions and answers) and Télefonica (see questions and answers). This document provides for the first time comprehensive guidance to stakeholders,
in particular the business community and competition law enforcers at national level, as to how the Commission uses an effects-based approach to establish its enforcement priorities under Article 82 in relation to exclusionary conduct.
The Commission begun in 2005 a reflection on the policy underlying Article 82 and the way in which it should enforce that policy. The broad lines of that reflection were set out by Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes in her speech of 23 September 2005 to the Fordham Corporate Law Institute.
In 2005 the Commission published a Staff Discussion Paper  on the application of Article 82 of the Treaty to exclusionary abuses by dominant undertakings (read press release). More than one hundred comments were received. The most important topics raised by the replies were discussed in a public hearing in June 2006, followed by more public debate.
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