Is Article 102 Europe’s Price-Gouging Law? In a recent webinar, John Davies argued that Article 102’s excessive pricing provisions are unlikely to be useful to competition authorities during the COVID-19 crisis. The regulatory powers of States may be more effective against abusive prices in the health sector.
Expert John Davies joins Jérôme Philippe of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in a short webinar to discuss antitrust issues, including price fixing, excessive pricing and cartels, from an economic and legal perspective in the context of the COVID-19 crisis.
The European Union and many other jurisdictions have long considered excessive and unfair pricing a breach of abuse of dominance provisions of competition law. However, there have not been many cases, at least at the EU level. Recently, however, excessive pricing cases seem to be coming back into fashion, partly in reaction to public concern but also reflecting economic thinking that has questioned the consensus.