Considerações actuais sobre o conceito de abuso de posição dominante no direito da concorrência da União Europeia

Abstract

Competition Law of the European Union holds, as its underlying rationale, the need to eliminate all the guards (barriers, obstacles...) which could hinder internal trade, in order to make it a linear trade (avoiding the fragmentation of the European Union economic areas, caused by distortion of sound patterns of trade and abuse of the very market structures). Competition Law has a central purpose of preventing either undertakings or States to create, in the absence of traditional protective measures in international trade, other possible constraints to trade within the internal market, thus compartmentalizing such market (i.e., making interpenetration of national markets difficult, so tending to perpetuate these ones). The purpose of Competition Law is to manage the competitive behaviour of undertakings and protect consumers' interests (its rationale being, that a competitive attitude of undertakings allows consumers to have access to goods and services under the best conditions). One of the great imperatives of Competition Law of the European Union is banning the abuse of a dominant position. This study focuses, through an analysis of its components, on some basic features of the characterization of this legal concept.