COMPETITION • FRENCH LAW • ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION
A price may constitute an abuse of dominance “if it is exaggerated in relation to the economic value of the service provided” and has no economic justification. The European and French authorities use two methods of analysis to establish the manifestly excessive nature of the prices of an undertaking in a dominant position. According to the first, the selling price of the product in question must be related to its cost price and an assessment must be made as to whether there is an excessive disproportion between the cost actually incurred and the price actually charged. The second consists in comparing the prices actually charged on the relevant market with those charged on equivalent or adjacent markets.
