property. State aid law one day discovered that any defciency in the public procurement process automatically led to the presence of State aid. Some authors point out that there is not only “perfect competition” but also “toxic competition”. 36 Finally, there is a well-established analogy in distribution law: a wholesaler can be lawfully prohibited from selling to end users (“Sprunglieferungsverbot”). Competition is restricted here, but it is not the competition that Article 101(1) protects (“schutzwürdiger Wettbewerb”). Last but not least, the climate issue may become an all-overriding issue, compelling an ad hoc combination of classic legal and novel political instruments similar to those we have seen in the aftermath of the 2008 fnancial crisis. Conclusion There is currently no case law or even scholarly discussion on the obligation of competition authorities and national courts to ensure the reconciliation of decisions in the feld of competition law with sustainability imperatives where this would mean prohibiting an otherwise pro-competitive agreement on sustainability grounds. However, although it is rather unlikely that a competition authority or court will fnd such an obligation in the immediate future, it does not seem wholly impossible either. Who other than ESG-heavyweight Robert G. Eccles would have thought ten years ago that institutional investors would one day base their investment decision on ESG-considerations and that integrated reporting would become the norm? Brussels, 13 October 2022 Maurice E. Stucke & Ariel Ezrachi, Competition Overdose- - How Free Market Mythology 36 Transformed Us from Citizens Kings to Market Servants, 2020.
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