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Jurisdictions covered

The following 35 jurisdictions are covered in this report:

Australia; Austria; Belgium; Brazil; Bulgaria; Canada; China; Colombia; Denmark; European Union; France; Germany; Hong Kong; India; Ireland; Italy; Japan; Korea; Luxembourg; Malaysia; Mexico; Morocco; Norway; Portugal; Russia; Saudi Arabia; Singapore; Slovenia; Spain; Sweden; Switzerland; Taiwan; Turkey; United Kingdom; United States

Questions

The set of questions relating to the topic of dominance and answered by the guide for each jurisdiction covered include:

General framework

• • What is the legal framework in your jurisdiction covering the behaviour of dominant firms?
• • How is dominance defined in the legislation and case law? What elements are taken into account when assessing dominance?
• • Is the purpose of the legislation and the underlying dominance standard strictly economic, or does it protect other interests?
• • Are there any sector-specific dominance rules, distinct from the generally applicable dominance provisions?
• • To whom do the dominance rules apply? Are any entities exempt?
• • Does the legislation only provide for the behavior of firms that are already dominant?
• • Is collective dominance covered by the legislation? How is it defined in the legislation and case law?
• • Does the legislation apply to dominant purchasers? Are there any differences compared with the application of the law to dominant suppliers?
• • How are relevant product and geographic markets defined? Are there market-share thresholds at which a company will be presumed to be dominant or not dominant?

Abuse of dominance

• • How is abuse of dominance defined and identified? What conduct is subject to a per se prohibition?
• • Does the concept of abuse cover both exploitative and exclusionary practices?
• • What link must be shown between dominance and abuse? May conduct by a dominant company also be abusive if it occurs on an adjacent market to the dominant market?
• • What defences may be raised to allegations of abuse of dominance? When exclusionary intent is shown, are defences an option?

Specific forms of abuse

• • Rebate schemes
• • Tying and bundling
• • Exclusive dealing
• • Predatory pricing
• • Price or margin squeezes
• • Refusals to deal and denied access to essential facilities
• • Predatory product design or a failure to disclose new technology
• • Price discrimination
• • Exploitative prices or terms of supply
• • Abuse of administrative or government process
• • Mergers and acquisitions as exclusionary practices
• • Other abuses

Enforcement proceedings

• • Which authorities are responsible for enforcement of the dominance rules and what powers of investigation do they have?
• • What sanctions and remedies may the authorities impose? May individuals be fined or sanctioned?
• • Can the competition enforcers impose sanctions directly or must they petition a court or other authority?
• • What is the most recent enforcement record in your jurisdiction?
• • Where a clause in a contract involving a dominant company is inconsistent with the legislation, is the clause (or the entire contract) invalidated?
• • To what extent is private enforcement possible? Does the legislation provide a basis for a court or authority to order a dominant firm to grant access, supply goods or services, conclude a contract or invalidate a provision or contract?
• • Do companies harmed by abusive practices have a claim for damages? Who adjudicates claims and how are damages calculated or assessed?
• • To what court may authority decisions finding an abuse be appealed?

Unilateral conduct

• • Are there any rules applying to the unilateral conduct of non-dominant firms?