The European Commission's Directorate-General for Competition (DG Competition) has for some time been working on clarifying the principles on which the Commission should base its enforcement of the EC Treaty's prohibition on the abuse of a dominant position (Article 82 of the EC Treaty). On 19 December last year, DG Competition published a discussion paper on which it is seeking feedback by the end of March.
This is the reason why the Competition Authority will hold a public hearing. The hearing will take place at the Authority's premises in Bergen on Tuesday 14 February from 12:00 to 16:00. The Authority will first give a brief presentation of the main content of the discussion paper. This will be followed by prepared comments from a number of selected individuals, and finally, the floor will be opened for comments from other attendees.
The discussion note from DG Competition is based on the existing case-law of the ECJ and the European Commission concerning Article 82. The note presents the general perspective which the Commission believes should be the starting point when determining whether a dominant undertaking has abused its position. It also discusses in detail how to analyse some important forms of abuse. The focus is on abuse which takes the form of competitors being excluded from the market (exclusionary abuse).
The Competition Authority has actively participated in the work on the principles for the application of Article 82, in connection with the Commission's involvement of the EU and EEA countries in this. The Norwegian Competition Act is harmonised with EU competition law by a corresponding provision in section 11 of the Competition Act. The work now being carried out by the Commission will therefore also be of significance for Norwegian competition law.
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