Browsing by Author "Lampinen, Toni"

The thesis concerns the assessment of rebate schemes under European Union competition law. Particularly exclusivity rebates have recently been under assessment of the European Union courts with the Intel judgement. This thesis aims to establish that the courts have historically assessed exclusivity rebates in a way that is incoherent with the assessment of other kinds of rebates. In particular, the courts seem to mistakenly view exclusivity rebates as practices similar to exclusive dealing whereas other rebates are considered more akin to pricing practices. This thesis provides an overview of case law and economic theory on rebate schemes so as to demonstrate that the economic theory behind exclusivity rebates does not justify the current treatment. The thesis also indicates that the mechanism of foreclosure pertinent in exclusivity rebates does not differ substantially from the mechanism of foreclosure in other rebate schemes. The thesis then advances the argument that the European Union courts’ assessment of rebates is in need of reform. In order to attain better results, competition law assessment should aim to bring itself in line with the economic theory. The thesis argues that the courts should recognize that exclusivity rebates, along with other rebate schemes, are closer to predatory pricing than exclusive dealing in their theory of harm. This entails that the European Union courts develop their assessment of rebates toward coherently assessing them as pricing practices with a potential to foreclose competitors.