Rules applicable to firms
Some firms attempt to distort free competition and adopt anti-competitive behaviour in order to impose their own rules on the market. Firms carrying out similar activities may come to arrangements with each other to control prices or to divide up the market among themselves. A firm that holds a dominant position in a market may also abuse this position and exclude its competitors from said market. The European Union has therefore put in place regulations to both prosecute firms and also prevent them from engaging in anti-competitive behaviour.
Furthermore, mergers and acquisitions of one firm by another may restrict competition by creating or strengthening a dominant actor in the market. The Union therefore controls, and if necessary prohibits or subjects to certain conditions, concentration with a Community dimension.
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ANTITRUST: RESTRICTIVE PRACTICES AND ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION
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General rules
- Application of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU (formerly Articles 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty)
- Guidelines for setting fines
- Immunity from and reduction of fines: leniency in cartel cases
- Information on infringements and complaints
- Guidelines on the effect on trade concept
- Definition of relevant market
- Guidelines on the application of Article 101(3) TFEU (formerly Article 81(3) TEC)
- De Minimis Notice: Exemption for agreements of minor importance
- Access to the file
- Informal guidance to firms
- European Competition Network (ECN)
- Cooperation between the Commission and national courts
- Exemptions per category: vertical agreements
- Exemptions per category: horizontal agreements
- Other types of exemptions
- Damages actions
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General rules
- MERGERS
See also
- Further information available from the "Antitrust", "Cartels" and "Concentrations" pages of the website of the European Commission's Competition Directorate-General.
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Glossary of terms used in EU competition policy
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