The EC Commission's Guidance Paper on the Application of Article 82 EC: An Efficient Means of Compliance for Germany?

Abstract

This article aims to introduce the Guidance Paper’s key features in applying Article 82 EC to abusive exclusionary conduct by dominant undertakings. It will therefore examine the concepts of consumer welfare, anticompetitive foreclosure, consumer harm, the efficiency-based defence and balancing test, and some issues that apply to predation and tying. It will also discuss how the Guidance Paper could be perceived from the perspective of German competition law and policy and what kind of transitional regime might be required for the effective implementation of its major analytical concepts. The central issue is therefore to answer the questions of how efficient it really is to reform Article 82 by means of a soft-law instrument, and whether the GP presents an efficient means of compliance for Germany.