Professional Documents
Culture Documents
will point out some justification of the agreement between company B and
MediaMarkt
- Positive effect on competition Guidelines
Paragraph 106 of the Vertical guidelines states that vertical restraints often
have positive effects, in particular by promoting nonprice competition and
improved quality of service. Paragraph 107 sets out nine situations in which
vertical restraints may help to realise efficiencies and the development of new
markets; the Commission says that it does not claim that the list is complete
or exhaustive:
(i) The free-rider problem
(ii) Opening up and entering new markets
(iii) The certification free-rider issue
(iv) The hold-up problem
(v) The hold-up problem where know-how is transferred
(vi) The vertical externality issue
(vii) Economies of scale in distribution
(viii) Capital market imperfections
- The de minimis doctrine
Paragraphs 8 to 11 of the Commissions Vertical guidelines point out that
agreements of minor importance usually fall outside Article 101(1) altogether.
These paragraphs refer to the Commissions 2001 Notice on Agreements of
Minor Importance. Vertical agreements entered into by non-competing
undertakings whose individual market share does not exceed 15 per cent are
usually regarded as de minimis, although a hard-core restriction such as an
export ban might infringe Article 101 (1) even below this threshold.
B falls into this de minimis doctrine since its market share remains around
15%