The European Commission has sole competence to decide that there
has been no breach of EU law prohibiting abuse of a dominant
position, according to the ECJ.
In a reference for a preliminary ruling brought by the Supreme
Court, the ECJ ruled that national competition authorities may
decide under EU law whether there are no grounds for action, but
not whether a breach has not occurred.
The ECJ decided that empowering national competition authorities to
decide such issues could undermine the powers of the Commission,
and prevent the uniform application of competition rules in member
states. An earlier negative decision at national level could also
prevent the Commission from finding that there had been a breach of
Treaty provisions.
The ruling was sought by the Supreme Court when UOKIK ruled that
the conduct of Telekomunikacja Polska SA did not constitute an
abuse of a dominant position under Polish competition law, and that
its decision also brought to an end proceedings for infringement of
Treaty provisions.
UOKIK's decision was challenged by Tele2 Polska (now Netia SA),
a competitor of Telekomunikacja Polska SA. The challenge was
annulled at first instance and upheld on appeal. When this was
challenged by UOKIK in the Supreme Court, the issue was referred to
the ECJ for a ruling.
Law: Article 5, Regulation 1/2003
This article was written for Law-Now, CMS Cameron McKenna's free online information service. To register for Law-Now, please go to www.law-now.com/law-now/mondaq
Law-Now information is for general purposes and guidance only. The information and opinions expressed in all Law-Now articles are not necessarily comprehensive and do not purport to give professional or legal advice. All Law-Now information relates to circumstances prevailing at the date of its original publication and may not have been updated to reflect subsequent developments.
The original publication date for this article was 10/05/2011.
