The Foundations of Europen Union Competition Law ─ The Objective and Principles of Article 102

The aim of this series is to publish important and original research on EU law. The focus is on scholarly monographs, with a particular emphasis on those which are interdisciplinary in nature. Edited collections of essays will also be included where they are appropriate. The series is wide in scope and aims to cover studies of particular areas of substantive and of institutional law, historical works, theoretical studies, and analyses of current debates, as well as questions of perennial interest such as the relationship between national and EU law and the novel forms of governance emerging in and beyond Europe. The fact that many of the works are interdisciplinary will make the series of interest to all those concerned with the governance and operation of the EU

Article 102 TFEU prohibits the abuse of a dominant position as incompatible with the internal market. Its application in practice has been controversial with goals as diverse as the preservation of an undistorted competitive process, the protection of economic freedom, the maximization of consumer welfare, social welfare, or economic efficiency all cited as possible or desirable objectives. These conflicting aims have raised complex questions as to how abuses can be assessed and how a dominant position should be defined

This book addresses the conceptual problems underlying the tests to be applied under Article 102 in light of the objective of EU competition law and its normative and legal foundations. The book covers all the main issues relating to Article 102, including its objective, its relationship with other principles and provisions of EU law, the criteria for the assessment of individual abusive practices, and the definition of dominance

Renato Nazzini is Professor of Competition Law and Arbitration at the University of Southampton.