Commission issues new guidelines on abuse of dominant position

The European Commission has published new guidelines on the application of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) to abusive exclusionary conduct by dominant undertakings. The communication, dated 9 September 2026, appears in the C series of the Official Journal of the European Union under reference C/2026/4675 and runs to 63 pages.

The guidelines set out principles and operational guidance to assess whether conduct by dominant undertakings constitutes an exclusionary abuse, in the light of the case-law of the European Union courts and the Commission’s own decisional practice. Their stated aim is to enhance legal certainty and help undertakings self-assess whether their conduct distorts effective competition.

Scope and general principles

The text covers the assessment of dominance, both single and collective, and explains how to determine whether conduct departs from competition on the merits and is capable of producing exclusionary effects. It stresses that Article 102 TFEU does not prevent an undertaking from acquiring a dominant position on its own merits, but places a special responsibility on dominant firms not to distort effective competition.

The Commission underlines the importance of vigorous enforcement in view of growing market concentration and the digitalisation of the EU economy, which makes strong network effects and “winner-takes-all” dynamics increasingly common. The guidelines are not binding on national courts or national competition authorities, but may guide them in applying Article 102 TFEU.

Conduct covered

The guidelines address a wide range of exclusionary practices, each with its own analytical framework:

• Predatory pricing and margin squeeze
• Rebates that are not conditional on exclusivity
• Exclusive dealing
• Tying and bundling
• Access restrictions and refusal to supply, including refusals concerning intellectual property rights
• Self-preferencing — more favourable treatment of the dominant undertaking’s own products
• Conduct that is by its very nature harmful to competition

Objective justifications

A dedicated section sets out the principles for assessing objective justifications, including the objective necessity defence and the efficiency defence. A dominant undertaking must demonstrate that its conduct does not eliminate effective competition by removing all or most existing sources of actual or potential competition in the relevant market.

Withdrawal of the 2009 guidance

The Commission’s previous Guidance on enforcement priorities in applying Article 82 of the EC Treaty to abusive exclusionary conduct (OJ C 45, 24.2.2009) is hereby withdrawn and ceases to apply 30 days after publication of the new guidelines in the Official Journal.

For dominant companies across the EU, the new framework clarifies the boundaries of lawful conduct in an era of platform markets and digital concentration, providing a more predictable basis for compliance and for the decentralised enforcement of Article 102 TFEU by national authorities.

Source: Official Journal of the European Union, C series, C/2026/4675, 9 September 2026 (official reference: C/2026/4675).