As efficient competitor test in exclusionary prices strategies: Does really Post-Danmark pave the way towards a more economic approach? - Bolsano, September 13-14th

A communication in the next symposium of the German Association of Law and Economics (Gesellschaft für Recht und Ökonomik e.V.) at Bolsano (Trentino- Alto Adige / Südtirol) on the as-efficient competitor test in the implementation of Article 102 TFEU.

The Post Danmark judgment may cast the light on the interpretations by the EU Court of Justice of crucial dimensions of the competition policy as: selective price cuts, above-cost rebates, costs test for exclusionary abuses with common costs. As we see one of the main interests of the decision lies on the cost criteria used by the Court to determine if a given price practice may exclude a competitor as efficient as the incumbent.

In other words, is the Post Danmark judgement a real step towards the appropriation by the Court of Justice of the more economic approach promoted by the Commission and, more broadly, is really the logic of the Court coherent with an effects-based approach? Does Post Danmark conciliates the traditional decisional practice of the Court with the new principles of competition policy enforcement advocated by the Commission since the issuance of its February 2009 guidelines, relative to the exclusionary practices of dominant undertakings?