Commission Notice on the definition of the relevant market for the purposes of Union competition law

Author (Corporate)
Series Title
Series Details C (2023) 6789
Publication Date 22/02/2024
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Summary:

Communication adopted by the European Commission on 8 February 2024, setting out a revised Market Definition Notice.

Further information:

Market definition requires identifying the boundaries of competition between companies when assessing mergers and most antitrust cases. The objective of defining the relevant product and geographic market is to identify the actual competitors that are capable of constraining the commercial decisions of the undertakings concerned. It is from this perspective that the market definition makes it possible, among other things, to calculate market shares that convey meaningful information for the purposes of assessing market power. It is used both in the European Commission's antitrust enforcement pursuant of Article 101 and Article 102 TFEU and in the Commission's merger control enforcement pursuant to Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004.

The first Notice on the relevant market for the purposes of Community competition law was published by the European Commission in 1997. A review process was launched in April 2020 which involved gathering feedback from stakeholders. The outcome of the assessment was published in July 2021. The revised Notice seeks to bring the European Commission's guidance with new market realities, as well as with developments in the Commission's case practice and EU case-law. It also reflects the policy orientation of the Commission's Communication A competition policy fit for new challenges published in late 2021. A draft version of the Notice was published in November 2022 for feedback.

In particular, the revised Market Definition Notice reflects the developments of the intervening years, notably the increased digitalisation and the new ways of offering goods and services, as well as the interconnected natured of commercial exchanges. The final version of the revised Notice was adopted by the European Commission on 8 February 2024, and published in the Official Journal on 22 February 2024.

Source Link http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2024/1645/oj
Related Links
Official
European Commission: DG Competition: Public Consultations: Review of the Commission Notice on the definition of relevant market for the purposes of Community competition law (2022) https://competition-policy.ec.europa.eu/public-consultations/2022-market-definition-notice_en
European Commission: Press Release, 08/11/2022: Competition: Commission seeks feedback on draft revised Market Definition Notice https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_6528
European Commission: Press Release, 08/02/2024: Commission adopts revised Market Definition Notice for competition cases https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_6001
European Commission: Questions & Answers, 08/02/2024: The revised Market Definition Notice for competition cases https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/qanda_23_6002
European Commission: Remarks by Executive Vice-President Vestager on the adoptions of a revised Market Definition Notice (8 February 2024) https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_24_710

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