Sarah Prager, Competition Law - OTAs and airlines

development could bring signifcant economic benefts. The conditions for granting such an exemption are that consumers are allowed a fair share of the resulting beneft and that the agreement does not impose unnecessary restrictions or aim to eliminate competition for a substantial part of the products concerned (paragraph 3). Rather than such exemptions being granted on a case-by-case basis, they are most commonly governed by the Block Exemption Regulations. These regulations cover groups of similar specifc agreements, which usually have a comparable impact on competition. The Commission is currently reviewing the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation, as well as the two Horizontal Block Exemption Regulations, together with the relevant guidelines. The aim of the review is to determine whether these regulations still take proper account of market developments and are still ft for purpose. Moreover, certain agreements are not regarded as infringements if they are of minor importance and have little impact on the market (the de minimis principle), even if they do not fulfl the conditions for exemption under Article 101(3) TFEU (so-called agreements of minor importance). Such agreements are often seen as useful for cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises. However, agreements which have the restriction of competition as their ‘object’ cannot be regarded as being of minor importance. (2) The prohibition of abuse of a dominant position (Article 102 TFEU) Article 102 TFEU reads: “Any abuse by one or more undertakings of a dominant position within the internal market or in a substantial part of it shall be prohibited as

RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTE4NzM5Nw==