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Chapter 5 Anti-trust Competitiveness

5.1 Antitrust & Competition Policy

Thanks to the competition, traders are motivated to offer goods and services to consumers on the most
advantageous terms. Thanks to it, your company look for new solutions (innovations), are more efficient
and the products are cheaper. Companies put pressure on themselves to be more competitive.

The antitrust policy is defined in the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. It is based on two
main principles:

• Article 101 of the Treaty covers rules and prohibits agreements between two or more independent mar-
ket players. This provision covers horizontal agreements as well as vertical agreements.

• Article 102 prohibits on abuse of dominant positions in the market. 1

5.2 Illegal contacts and agreements

Contacts and illegal agreements are so-called cartels. Cartels are defined as a group of similar companies
that merge to control prices and limit market competitiveness. They are not legal because they restrict
competition. Examples:

• price fixing
• agreements on customer allocation
• market sharing
• distribution agreements between suppliers and vendors, whereby prices offered to customers are
imposed by the supplier
• agreements on the right to limit production volumes

1 https://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/overview_en.html