Chillin'Competition

Challenges raised by the Regulation of Online Distribution in EU Competition Law – Kathleen Mercelis

The development of the internet has undoubtedly had a significant impact on distribution structures in the European Union (“EU”), with an increasing number of sales being directly concluded “on-line”. Whilst, under EU competition law, the existing Regulation concerning vertical restraints (Regulation 2790/1999 and its accompanying Guidelines) also covers in principle online distribution, the question arises whether online distribution should, in the future, benefit from a new, specific, regulatory framework. Within the existing regulation a number of concepts and principles (e.g. active and passive sales, selective distribution, etc.) are indeed said to be ill-suited to online distribution.  In addition, the public consultation opened by the EU Commission several months ago has so far been dominated by a few companies such as E-bay,  the representativeness of which can be questioned. The purpose of the present dissertation is to review those questions, and provide a critical assessment of the various proposals made in the context of the ongoing Commission’s review of rules applicable to vertical agreements.