Rethinking Abuse of Dominance in the Light of Causation

Abstract

There have been substantial reforms in business models; companies that used to compete on prices to gain more consumers in the market is an old concept in the status quo. Business models have drastically changed from pure price to non-price competition where goods and services like social networking are provided free of cost to the users in the market. This non-price competition is often based on data privacy and online digital platforms. With the changing business models, competition authorities around the globe have also enhanced their tools to catch new anti-competitive practices which are detrimental to effective competition. Still, some competition tools need to be put on a highlight, and they need some new reforms to enable the companies to compete effectively on the market. Amongst those tools is the element of causation. Causation, which is supposed to link the dominant position of the company to its practices on the market, is missing and bewildered in the case-law of the EU. This thesis focuses on the element of causation, particularly in online digital platforms and data privacy cases. It will address why causation is required to link the dominant position of the company to its practice in new digital competition. More specifically, the thesis focuses on the importance of causation when a competition authority is dealing with Article 102 Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (hereinafter: ‘TFEU’) data privacy cases. It is argued that causation should be the central element when dealing with Article 102 TFEU cases dealing with digital platforms and data privacy, and a causal link should be established to sanction the alleged practice of a dominant company.