Acceso usuarios
Valladolid, España
This paper argues for the recognition of economic dependence as a relevant concept within EU competition law,moving beyond the traditional—yet limited—dominance-based framework of Article 102 TFEU. Comparative anal-ysis shows that this, or an equivalent concept, is already embedded in the domestic competition regimes of severalEU Member States, as well as in Japan and South Korea, to address severe imbalances of bargaining power in ver-tical commercial relationships that may distort the competitive process below the dominance threshold. Whereasthe DMA embodies a regulatory response to forms of collective dependence linked to gatekeepers, its limited scopeleaves many problematic scenarios unaddressed. In the context of the ongoing evaluation of Regulation 1/2003, in-troducing economic dependence at EU level would offer a more comprehensive response to contemporary economicpower, in line with EU constitutional values, while enhancing internal coherence and promoting normative conver-gence with like-minded democracies
