Absolute territorial protection

Practice by manufacturers or suppliers, relating to the resale of their products and leading to a separation of markets or territories. Under absolute territorial protection, a single distributor obtains the rights from a manufacturer to market a product in a certain...

Abuse of a dominant position

Anti-competitive business practices (including improper exploitation of customers or exclusion of competitors) which a dominant firm may use in order to maintain or increase its position in the market. Competition law prohibits such behaviour, as it damages true...

Access to the file

Right of natural or legal persons who are parties to a Commission investigation to see the Commission’s file, whenever the Commission proposes to adopt a decision which would be unfavourable to those parties. Access is given during the course of the administrative...

Active sales

Sales made by actively approaching individual customers inside another distributor’s exclusive territory or exclusive customer group. This may be, for instance, by direct mail or visits; by actively approach- ing a specific customer group or customers in a specific...

Actual competitor

Firm which is either currently active on the same relevant market as the company under investigation, or which is able to switch produc- tion to the relevant products and market them in the short term without incurring significant additional costs or risks in response...