Our webinar series on the European Commission’s draft guidelines on Article 102 is now available on demand here. The series, hosted by Kevin Coates, a former European Commission head of unit and an antitrust partner in Covington’s Brussels office, is in three parts.
In the first webinar, Massimiliano Kadar of the European Commission’s DG Competition, and the project lead for the draft guidelines, outlined the Commission’s objectives. He stressed that the draft systematises the caselaw on Article 102, in particular accounting for the nearly 40 rulings of the European Courts that have been issued since the European Commission’s 2009 Guidance on Enforcement Priorities. He reflects on the main differences in emphasis between the 2009 paper and the draft guidelines.
In the second webinar, Miguel de la Mano – who was the deputy Chief Economist at the time of the 2009 Guidance – argues that the lack of economic principle in the draft guidelines unmoors the guidelines from the economic considerations that distinguish between competition on the merits and anti-competitive foreclosure.
In the third webinar, Damien Gerard, Prosecutor General of the Belgian Competition Authority, supports the Commission’s intentions in publishing the guidelines, and highlights some areas where he would like to see the guidelines more developed, in particular in terms of what kind of evidence would be useful to rebut the presumptions set out in the guidelines.
The three webinars provide very different perspectives on the draft guidelines and will be a great help to inhouse lawyers trying to understand the context and implications of the draft and how to handle Article 102 issues in the future. The consultation on the draft is now closed, and the Commission has announced a public meeting in February next year to discuss the responses and next steps.