Abuse Control
The abusive practices is, in addition to the prohibition or the review of cartels and merger control , one of the three pillars of competition law . The abuse control serves to prevent the exploitation of a dominant position or, in German law, under certain conditions also merely a market position, by one or more companies . In contrast to the (bilateral) cartel, abuse control only includes unilateral behavior .
Abuse control only applies to combating abusive behavior by a company that is already dominant in the market. The development of the dominant market position, however, is not included.
European Abuse Control
The European control of abuse is regulated in Art. 102 AEU-Treaty (Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union).
German abuse control
The German abuse control is regulated in the Act against Restraints of Competition (GWB) in § 19 , § 20 and § 21 . German law is stricter than European law; behavior that is not covered by the European ban can be prohibited under stricter German law. Compare in particular Section 20 (2) GWB.
Austrian abuse control
The Austrian abuse control is regulated in Section 5 of the Cartel Act. This provision is almost identical to Art. 102 TFEU. A definition of the term market dominance can be found in Section 4 of the Cartel Act.
Swiss abuse control
Swiss abuse control is regulated in Art. 7 of the Federal Act on Cartels and Other Restraints of Competition (Cartel Act, KG, SR 251).
