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6 Dominant Firm Unilateral Conduct: Monopolization and Abuse of Dominance

• Published: August 2020
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A firm acting alone—that is, unilaterally—can also harm competition. If it has sufficient influence on a market, it can exclude rivals or limit their capacity to compete. Competition law regimes typically contain provisions prohibiting such conduct. Most use the concept of abuse of dominance to identify and combat it, but a few, including the US, use the term “monopolization” for this purpose. This component of competition law is often controversial and politically sensitive, and globalization increases this tension. This chapter identifies the issues in applying competition law to single firm conduct and reveals how regimes decide whether to pursue it. A single firm can harm competition only if it has sufficient power to influence a particular market, so the chapter looks at how regimes assess this power, how they define the relevant market, and which kinds of conduct constitute a competition law violation. Although most competition laws target this type of conduct, variations in actual treatment are great. The Guide outlines the global patterns and the factors that lead to them.

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Legal Treatment of Abuse of Dominance in Indian Competition Law: Adopting an Effects-Based Approach

• Published: 18 August 2018
• Volume 54 , pages 435–464, ( 2019 )

Cite this article

• Payal Malik 1 , 2 ,
• Neha Malhotra   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3583-9864 3 ,
• Ramji Tamarappoo 3 , 4 &
• Nisha Kaur Uberoi 5  

453 Accesses

2 Citations

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Abuse of dominance investigations around the world are often form-based, primarily centred on the pre-requisite of dominance. This may lead to false positives or restrict innovation in today’s dynamic and complex markets. Accordingly, abuse of dominance enforcement requires a shift towards adopting an effects-based approach, weighing pro and anticompetitive effects and considering efficiency justifications. The European Union is increasingly moving in this direction, as is demonstrated by its case law that is analysed in this paper. The paper also explores competition law in India—traditionally a form-based jurisdiction for abuse of dominance investigations—and finds an encouraging trend towards an effects-based approach.

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Legal challenges arising from abuse of dominance cases

Abuse of Dominance by Firms Charging Excessive or Unfair Prices: An Assessment

Referred to as the ‘Act’ in this paper.

There are some cases where the CCI has undertaken an investigation even when the firm was not dominant.

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The discussion paper released in 2005 related to the application of Article 82 of the EC Treaty on exclusionary practices in the EU and the guidance paper released in 2008—‘Guidance on the Commission’s Enforcement Priorities in Applying Article 82 EC Treaty to Abusive Exclusionary Conduct by Dominant Undertakings’—allow for objective justifications and efficiencies (Objective Necessity Defense, Meeting Competition Defense, and Efficiency Defense) to be put forward by the dominant firm. However, Article 82 of the EC Treaty does not contain any specific provision on this. The decision of accepting such justifications and related evidence or the weight given to them is left to the courts.

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Malik, P., Malhotra, N., Tamarappoo, R. et al. Legal Treatment of Abuse of Dominance in Indian Competition Law: Adopting an Effects-Based Approach. Rev Ind Organ 54 , 435–464 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11151-018-9651-y

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Published : 18 August 2018

Issue Date : 15 March 2019

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11151-018-9651-y

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