Research Fellow Håvard Ormberg – “Anti-competitive agreements and abuse of dominance”

On several occasions the EU Courts has made it clear that Articles 101 and 102 TFEU can apply in parallel. From the outset one would presume that the simultaneous application of the provisions would presuppose that both provisions seek to achieve the same paramount aim, and, that there should be consistency between them. However, neither the EU Courts nor the Commission seem to have developed any systematic principles on when and on which criteria the provisions are to be applied in parallel. Further, there seems to be an inconsistency in the jurisprudence of the EU Courts on what affecting competition through restrictive agreements and abuse of dominance entails, thus giving rise to a series of questions on parallel application and the consequences of such. This PhD-project therefore seeks to analyse the jurisprudence of the EU Courts with the aim of clarifying on which criteria the provisions should and shouldn't be applied in parallel.