The Essential Facilities Doctrine and the Bronner Judgment Clarified: Case C-165/19 P Slovak Telekom v Commission

Abstract

Judgment of 25 March 2021 in Case C-165/19 P Slovak Telekom v Commission, EU:C:2021:239. The Court confirmed that dominant companies might be obliged to supply an input to a rival only where that input is indispensable to compete in the downstream market, but held that a lower standard applies if a dominant company already supplies the input or is subject to a regulatory obligation to do so. On 25 March 2021, the Court of Justice dismissed the appeals submitted by Slovak Telekom (‘ST’) and Deutsche Telekom against a General Court judgment concerning the Commission’s decision finding that ST abused its dominant position (Case T-851/14 Slovak Telekom v Commission, EU:T:2018:929). On 15 October 2014, the Commission adopted a decision finding that ST, the Slovak incumbent telecommunications operator, abused its dominant position by engaging in a range of practices designed to restrict access to ST’s local loop...