The EU Court of Justice clarifies the concept of a "competitive disadvantage" arising from discriminatory pricing by a dominant undertaking on a downstream market (MEO / Serviços de Communicações e multimedia)

The CJEU held that a finding of a “competitive disadvantage” as the result of discriminatory pricing by a dominant undertaking on a downstream market does not require demonstration of an actual and quantifiable deterioration of a customer’s competitive situation on that market. This notion requires only the demonstration of a possible effect on said competitive situation, after a concrete examination of all relevant circumstances. GDA is a nonprofit collecting society and the sole body responsible for the collective management of artists’ and performers’ rights in Portugal. Between 2010 and 2013, GDA applied three separate wholesale tariffs on various pay-TV service providers for the transmission of signal and content. GDA charged one of the suppliers, MEO, a tariff set by an arbitration