The Spanish Constitutional Court seems to set a fatal blow to regional competition authorities in a ruling concerning an abuse of dominance case in the bus transport sector (Madrid Southern Bus Station)

Background On March 8, 2006 Aníbal S.L. – a firm providing services on the international passenger bus route Lisbon-Madrid-Paris, for which they held the mandatory administrative authorisation – sent a letter of complaint against the concessionaire of the Madrid Southern Bus Station (Esamsa) to the Spanish Service for the Defence of Competition (Servicio de Defensa de la Competencia) [1]. The complaint alleged conduct prohibited by the former Antitrust Act (Act 16/1989), namely (i) unjustified refusal to allocate a box office for the sale of its tickets and (ii) the refusal to install telephone lines in commercial premises that Aníbal Tours – Aníbal's travel agency –occupied in the same bus station. On March 16, 2006 Spanish Service for the Defence of Competition decided to initiate