The Luxembourg Competition Authority releases a termination decision removing suspicions of competition law infringements consisting in cross-subsidizing and abuse of collective dominance by a press group concerning a free daily newspaper (Nicolas / L’Essentiel)

The Luxembourg Competition Council has released a termination decision on 2 July 2009 (Décision n° 2009-FO-01) removing suspicions of competition law infringements by the Groupe de Presse Nicolas. Generally speaking, the case is interesting in the sense it shows how market players active in the printed press industry have tried to use competition law to question the legality of a company distributing free daily newspapers. Further, the decision provides an interesting product market definition with reference to the SNIPP test. More specifically, the case is of interest for Luxembourg competition law as it raises different issues such as the investigation powers of the Luxembourg Competition Inspection, cross-subsidizing issues, and founds for the first time a collective dominance between