Competition Law as Regulation - External Regulatory Frameworks in EU Competition Law Assessments
(2025) JURM02 20252Faculty of Law
Department of Law
- Abstract
- This thesis examines the interaction between EU competition law and regulation. The overall aim is to explore how regulation in its capacity as an external regulatory framework may inform competition assessments. The exploration focuses in particular on the impact of the GDPR on the competition law assessment of an abuse of a dominant position under Article 102 TFEU. To explore how the role of EU competition law itself can be conceptualised, the competition assessment of digital platform rule-setting practices is also discussed. As two illustrative examples, the European Commission’s decision concerning Apple’s anti-steering provisions and the French Competition Authority’s decision on Apple’s privacy policy are considered, with the latter... (More)
- This thesis examines the interaction between EU competition law and regulation. The overall aim is to explore how regulation in its capacity as an external regulatory framework may inform competition assessments. The exploration focuses in particular on the impact of the GDPR on the competition law assessment of an abuse of a dominant position under Article 102 TFEU. To explore how the role of EU competition law itself can be conceptualised, the competition assessment of digital platform rule-setting practices is also discussed. As two illustrative examples, the European Commission’s decision concerning Apple’s anti-steering provisions and the French Competition Authority’s decision on Apple’s privacy policy are considered, with the latter serving as an illustration of decentralised enforcement of EU competition law.
In order to analyse this topic, the exploration focuses on the decision of the Court of Justice of the EU in C-252/21 Meta Platforms, which clarifies how external regulatory rules may influence competition assessments and recognises non-compliance with the GDPR as a factor within the realm of competition law considerations when establishing an abuse of a dominant position. Furthermore, the thesis analyses case law concerning the relationship between competition law and sector-specific regulation in order to identify analogies relevant to the interaction between competition law and the GDPR. The thesis finds that when competition law and regulation overlap, regulation may be taken into account as a contextual factor in the competition assessment and used as a benchmark for identifying departures from normal competition. In that context, a breach of regulation can amount to a breach of competition law. While this approach promotes the effectiveness of EU competition law, it entails a more regulatory type of enforcement and carries a risk of sectoral fragmentation in the application of competition law. (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- Uppsatsen undersöker samspelet mellan EU:s konkurrensrätt och reglering med fokus på hur externa regelverk utanför konkurrensrätten påverkar den konkurrensrättsliga prövningen. Analysen fokuserar särskilt på hur dataskyddsförordningen (GDPR) påverkar den konkurrensrättsliga prövningen av missbruk av dominerande ställning enligt artikel 102 FEUF. För att belysa konkurrensrättens roll undersöks den konkurrensrättsliga prövningen av digitala plattformars regler. Europeiska kommissionens beslut avseende Apples så kallade anti-steering-regler och den franska konkurrensmyndighetens beslut avseende Apples integritetspolicy används som belysande exempel, varav det senare även illustrerar en decentraliserad tillämpning av EU:s konkurrensrätt.
I... (More) - Uppsatsen undersöker samspelet mellan EU:s konkurrensrätt och reglering med fokus på hur externa regelverk utanför konkurrensrätten påverkar den konkurrensrättsliga prövningen. Analysen fokuserar särskilt på hur dataskyddsförordningen (GDPR) påverkar den konkurrensrättsliga prövningen av missbruk av dominerande ställning enligt artikel 102 FEUF. För att belysa konkurrensrättens roll undersöks den konkurrensrättsliga prövningen av digitala plattformars regler. Europeiska kommissionens beslut avseende Apples så kallade anti-steering-regler och den franska konkurrensmyndighetens beslut avseende Apples integritetspolicy används som belysande exempel, varav det senare även illustrerar en decentraliserad tillämpning av EU:s konkurrensrätt.
I uppsatsen undersöks EU-domstolens mål i C-252/21 Meta Platforms, i vilket domstolen slog fast att nationella konkurrensmyndigheter, inom ramen för en utredning gällande missbruk av dominerande ställning, har rätt att kontrollera efterlevnaden av GDPR. Uppsatsen analyserar vidare rättspraxis rörande förhållandet mellan konkurrensrätt och sektorspecifik reglering för att identifiera vilka analogier som kan dras avseende samspelet mellan konkurrensrätt och dataskyddsreglering. Uppsatsen visar att när konkurrensrätt och reglering överlappar kan reglering beaktas i den konkurrensrättsliga prövningen som en kontextuell faktor och som ett riktmärke för att identifiera avvikelser från metoder som tillhör normal konkurrens. Under vissa omständigheter kan överträdelser av reglering användas som grund för konkurrensrättsligt ansvar. Samtidigt som detta förhållande stärker effektiviteten för EU:s konkurrensrätt innebär det en mer regleringspräglad tillsyn och ger upphov till risker för sektoriell fragmentering i tillämpningen av konkurrensrätten. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9217486
- author
- Jakobsson Hatay, Ayda LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- JURM02 20252
- year
- 2025
- type
- H3 - Professional qualifications (4 Years - )
- subject
- keywords
- EU Law, Competition Law, Article 102 TFEU, Abuse of Dominance, GDPR, Platforms, Regulation
- language
- English
- id
- 9217486
- date added to LUP
- 2026-01-23 11:41:00
- date last changed
- 2026-01-23 11:41:00
@misc{9217486,
abstract = {{This thesis examines the interaction between EU competition law and regulation. The overall aim is to explore how regulation in its capacity as an external regulatory framework may inform competition assessments. The exploration focuses in particular on the impact of the GDPR on the competition law assessment of an abuse of a dominant position under Article 102 TFEU. To explore how the role of EU competition law itself can be conceptualised, the competition assessment of digital platform rule-setting practices is also discussed. As two illustrative examples, the European Commission’s decision concerning Apple’s anti-steering provisions and the French Competition Authority’s decision on Apple’s privacy policy are considered, with the latter serving as an illustration of decentralised enforcement of EU competition law.
In order to analyse this topic, the exploration focuses on the decision of the Court of Justice of the EU in C-252/21 Meta Platforms, which clarifies how external regulatory rules may influence competition assessments and recognises non-compliance with the GDPR as a factor within the realm of competition law considerations when establishing an abuse of a dominant position. Furthermore, the thesis analyses case law concerning the relationship between competition law and sector-specific regulation in order to identify analogies relevant to the interaction between competition law and the GDPR. The thesis finds that when competition law and regulation overlap, regulation may be taken into account as a contextual factor in the competition assessment and used as a benchmark for identifying departures from normal competition. In that context, a breach of regulation can amount to a breach of competition law. While this approach promotes the effectiveness of EU competition law, it entails a more regulatory type of enforcement and carries a risk of sectoral fragmentation in the application of competition law.}},
author = {{Jakobsson Hatay, Ayda}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Competition Law as Regulation - External Regulatory Frameworks in EU Competition Law Assessments}},
year = {{2025}},
}