Exclusive Contracts and Article 82 Enforcement: An Effects-Based Perspective

"This paper describes the economic principles that should underpin an effects-based approach to the enforcement of Article 82 against exclusive supply contracts—where a dominant supplier offers discounted prices to customers on the condition that the customer places all its business with that supplier. It is structured as follows:

. Section B describes a stylised example of an exclusive contract offered by a hypothetical dominant firm, Domco.

. Section C explores the opposing competitive scenarios that could explain such contracts: anti-competitive “monopoly leverage” and pro-competitive “competition for the market”.

. Section D discusses the ways in which an effects-based approach to analysing these contracts can seek to distinguish between anti- and pro-competitive explanations.

. Section E relates the preceding discussion to selected case studies.

. Section F concludes."