Competition policy is about applying rules to make sure businesses and companies compete fairly with each other. This encourages enterprise and efficiency, creates a wider choice for consumers and helps reduce prices and improve quality. Low prices for all: the simplest way for a company to gain a high market share is to offer a better price. In a competitive market, prices are pushed down. Not only is this good for consumers - when more people can afford to buy products, it encourages businesses to produce and boosts the economy in general. Better quality: competition also encourages businesses to improve the quality of goods and services they sell – to attract more customers and expand market share. Quality can mean various things: products that last longer or work better, better after-sales or technical support or friendlier and better service. More choice: in a competitive market, businesses will try to make their products different from the rest. This results in greater choice – so consumers can select the product that offers the right balance between price and quality. Innovation: to deliver this choice, and produce better products, businesses need to be innovative – in their product concepts, design, production techniques, services etc. Better competitors in global markets: competition within the EU helps make European companies stronger outside the EU too – and able to hold their own against global competitors. © European Commission

This Glossary matches the list of keywords used by Concurrences search engine. Each keyword is automatically updated by the most recent EU and national case laws from the e-Competitions Bulletin and Concurrences Review. The definitions are excerpt from DG COMP’s Glossary of terms used in EU competition policy (© European Union, 2002) and the OECD’s Glossary of industrial organisation economics and competition law (© OECD, 1993).
Consumers protection
Glossary
A
Absolute territorial protection
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Abuse of dominant position
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Abuse of economic dependence
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Access to essential facility
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Access to information
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Access to the file
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Agency agreement
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Agent
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Agreement (notion)
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Amicus curiae
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Ancillary restraints
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Annulment
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Anticompetitive objet or effect
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Anticompetitive practices
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Applicable law
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Arbitration
B
C
Cartel
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Clearance phase I (merger)
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Clearance phase II (merger)
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Collecting society
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Collective dominance
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Collective redress (class action)
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Competence
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Competition policy
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Competition policy
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Complaint
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Compliance programme
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Compulsory license
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Concerted practices
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Concession
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Concurrent jurisdiction
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Consumers protection
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Consumers’ associations
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Control (change)
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Control (notion)
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Cooperation Agreement
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Cooperation between competition authorities
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Coordinated effects
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Copyright
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Corporate group
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Corruption
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Cost-based access
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Criminal sanctions
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Cross subsidisation
D
E
ECHR
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Economic analysis
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Economic efficiency
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Effect on trade between Member States
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Effective judicial protection
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Environmental protection
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Essential facility
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European Competition Network (ECN)
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Excess prices
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Exchanges of information
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Exclusive distribution
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Exclusive purchasing agreement
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Exclusive right (Art. 106 TFEU)
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Exclusivity clause
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Exhaustion
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Extra-territoriality
F
I
M
P
Parallel imports (parallel trade)
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Passing-on
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Pay-for-delay
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Periodic penalty payment
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Personal data
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Predatory pricing
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Preliminary ruling (Art. 267 TFUE)
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Price discrimination
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Price-fixing agreement
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Prices
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Principle of effectiveness
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Principle of equal treatment
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Principle of equivalence
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Principle of proportionality
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Private enforcement
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Privatization
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Procedural autonomy
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Professional association
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Public procurement
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Public undertaking
R
S
Sector inquiry
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Selective distribution
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Services of general economic interest
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Single branding
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Sole control
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Spill-over effects
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Standard-Essential Patent (SEP)
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State action defense
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State aid (compatibility)
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State aid (existing aid)
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State aid (notification)
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State aid (notion)
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State aid (recovery)
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State aid (tax ruling)
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State aid (unlawful aid)
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State measure
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Sudden break of established business relationships