Antitrust Chronicle® – Essential Facilities

Dear Readers,

The essential facilities doctrine provides a generally recognized basis for imposing antitrust liability for unilateral refusals to deal. Classically, it has been claimed that a monopolist that denies a competitor access to an input considered an “essential facility” violates section 2 of the U.S. Sherman Act or Article 102 TFEU (and its national equivalents) in the EU, though in Europe the concept is termed as a “refusal to deal” or a “refusal to supply.” 

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