Chillin'Competition

The University of Liege has teamed up with two other Belgian universities to offer an ambitious conference on Internet piracy.  On our side, Prof. Alain Strowel and Véronique Delforge are the masterminds behind the project. See link hereafter.

10 11 15 Colloque Téléchargement

I am in Lille today, lecturing on Article 102 TFEU. I read again the Guidance Communication in full. Overall, this is a good document. A few things that retained my attention this time, and that did not strike when I commented it a while ago in World Competition:

• At footnote 3, there is a reference to 101(3) TFEU, which lends support to the implicit existence of an 102(3) defense;
• §56 on tying would have benefited from illustrations;
• In line with the CFI ruling in MSFT, intellectual assets subject to IPRs are not subject to a particular refusal to deal standard;
• The market coverage of the allegedly abusive course of conduct brings relevant information (§20, to contrast with Tomra)
• Saying that there can be unlawful rebates absent a sacrifice is not wholly true (§37). According to the test devised at §§43-45, to be abusive, the rebate must entail a sacrifice, but on the contestable share.