The European Commission has published today a Staff Working Document that summarises the findings of the evaluation of the Market Definition Notice used in EU competition law.
The aim of the evaluation was to contribute to the Commission’s assessment of the functioning of the Market Definition Notice, in order to decide whether to repeal the Notice, leave it unchanged or revise it.
Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager, in charge of competition policy, said:
“We need to analyse the market and the boundaries of the market where companies compete. The Market Definition Notice is very useful in that context. The evaluation has confirmed that it provides clarity and transparency to stakeholders on how we approach market definition. The basic principles of the Market Definition Notice, based on the case law of the EU courts, remain sound today. At the same time the evaluation indicates that the Notice does not fully cover recent evolutions in market definition practice, including those related to the digitalisation of the economy. We will now analyse if and how the Notice should be revised to address the issues we have identified.”
The Commission launched the evaluation of the Market Definition Notice in March 2020. During the evaluation, the Commission collected evidence to understand how the Notice has performed since its adoption in 1997. The evidence collected includes, among others, contributions by stakeholders gathered in apublic consultationthat took place betweenJuneand October 2020. In addition, the Commissionconsulted the EU national competition authoritiesand proactively engaged with experts and representatives from stakeholder groups. Finally, the Commission requested an external evaluationsupport study, which reviewed relevant practices in other jurisdictions, as well as legal and economic literature, in relation to four specific aspects of market definition: (i) digitalisation, (ii) innovation, (iii) geographic market definition and (iv) quantitative techniques.