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International Antitrust Law & Policy: Fordham Competition Law 2010 - Hardcover
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Chapter 13
COMPETITION POLICY, ABUSIVE
DOMINANCE AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT: SOME REFLECTIONS
Maher M. Dabbah*
I. OVERVIEW
The topic of abusive dominance has fundamental importance in the
field of competition law. No competition law can ever be complete without
containing a set of rules and principles clearly and strongly prohibiting
harmful unilateral conduct on the part of dominant firms.
Notwithstanding its significance, however, the topic has always been
surrounded with controversy. This is something that can be easily gleaned
from the experience of different competition law regimes around the
world. For example, in key regimes such as those of the European Union
(EU) and the United States of America (U.S.), the debate has never been
settled with regard to what the proper goals of the relevant provisions
prohibiting abusive dominance and monopolisation – namely Article 102
of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) (formerly
Article 82 EC) and section 2 of the Sherman Act 1890 – should be;1 or how
interventionist in the marketplace the relevant authorities and courts
ought to be when enforcing these provisions. The distinction between
what competition specialists understand as “procompetitive” and
“anticompetitive” can be finer than one may imagine in the area of abusive
conduct. Important efforts have been made to promote the discussion of
these and other key issues surrounding the topic and to offer appropriate
Chapter 13
COMPETITION POLICY, ABUSIVE DOMINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: SOME REFLECTIONS
by Maher M. Dabbah
I. Overview
II. The “Contexts” of the Topic
III. The Different Types
IV. Is Abusive Dominance a Serious Issue in the Developing World?
V. Under-Enforcement Against Abusive Dominance
A. The “Dominance” of Anti-cartel Enforcement and Competition Advocacy
B. The Perception of Abusive Dominance Cases as “Hard” Cases
C. The Question of Resources
D. The Provisions of the Law
E. Political Constraints
VI. An International Perspective
VII. A Comment On Exploitative Abuses
VIII. Conclusions
Maher M. Dabbah, Director, Interdisciplinary Centre for Competition Law and Policy (ICC), Queen Mary, University of London
