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COMPETITION LAW 151
On 18.07.2013, the Draft Guidelines on the Evaluation of Exclusionist
Misconduct of Dominant Undertakings 3 (“Draft Guidelines”) were
published on the official website of the Competition Authority
(“Authority”) and submitted to public opinion. In these Draft Guidelines,
predatory pricing is defined as an abuse of the dominant position and its
conditions are explained.
Definition
Under the decisions of the Board, predatory pricing is generally
defined as the pushing out of rivals from the market by taking a dominant
position in the market with an aggressive price decrease policy followed
by a mid or long term price increase policy 4.
The Board asserts in some decisions, by referring to the potential
competition, that predatory pricing results also in the pushing out of
“existing or potential rivals” from the related market 5.
Evidently, potential competition shall always be taken into account.
As a matter of fact, concentration analysis is generally done in two steps
consisting of the positions of both existing and potential rivals 6.
The definition of predatory pricing set forth in the Draft Guidelines
includes all elements previously stated in the Board’s decisions. Thus, a
full and correct definition of such competition infringement is given in
the Draft Guidelines:
3 Opinions regarding the Draft Guidelines should have been submitted until 08.09.2013. See
the following link to reach the Draft Guidelines:
H7deC+LxBI8= (accessed on: 03.10.2013).
4 For such definition, see for instance the Board’s decision dated 09.05.2013 and numbered
13-27/371-172,
%A7eli+Kurul+Karar%C4%B1%2f13-27-371-172.pdf (accessed on: 03.10.2013).
5 For such definition, see for instance Board’s decision dated 09.05.2013 and numbered 13-
27/371-172,
Karar%C4%B1%2f13-27-371-172.pdf (accessed on: 03.10.2013).
6 See for instance Board’s decision dated 06.02.2013 and numbered 13-09/127-57,
Karar%C4%B1%2f13-09-127-57.pdf (accessed on: 03.10.2013).