The new EU abuse of dominance guidelines. More clarity, less predictability?

14 September 2026

The European Commission has issued new guidelines on exclusionary abuses of dominance that infringe Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU. While the new guidelines are expressed as a statement of the legal framework for assessing dominance, abuse and potential defences to a finding of abuse, they inevitably reflect the Commission's favoured interpretations of the EU courts' complex case law in this area. Consequently, while they bring substantial clarifications of the Commission's approach to assessing exclusionary abuses, they do not necessarily bring greater legal certainty for businesses. In many areas, they create new compliance risks, such as a risk of being found collectively dominant even when not the largest player in the market, or a risk of being presumed to have caused exclusionary effects when offering exclusivity rebates. In others, they may reduce predictability of enforcement, for example when assessing whether conduct is "capable" of having anticompetitive effects.

Businesses should therefore re-assess whether they may be considered dominant in any of the EU markets in which they operate and, if so, update their compliance policies to reflect the new guidelines.

 

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