European Competition Law

In implementing Article 101 TFEU the European Institutions have increasingly abandoned a formalistic approach to the provision in favour of a more effects-based analysis?
Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 was adopted on December 16th 2002 and it implemented the rules of competition laws defined in Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) 1. The article 101 aims to prohibit cartels and other agreements that could be crippling, applying restrictions or preventing the fair competition in the EU’s internal markets2. The main ideas behind the changes was to change the general mind-set from rules based approach towards a more effects-base analysis, so that the main benefactor would be enhancing the consumer welfare by protection of competition in the EU markets3.
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