Economic Reasoning before the European Union Courts in Competition Law. Bruges European Economic Policy Briefings 44/2018, June 2018

The European Union Courts have since the beginning of the enforcement of the Treaties exercised their jurisdiction in all the domains covered by the Treaties, including in competition law. The area of the competition rules is fact intensive and often requires economic analysis. The degree and intensity of economic assessment at the level of the Union Courts is inherently linked to the way the Courts exercise judicial review over the Commission’s decisions, but also depends on the willingness of the Union judges to examine the facts of the case and to analyse economic concepts. The Union Courts have often been criticised for being too deferential to the Commission’s factual findings and economic reasoning. Recent developments indicate a trend towards a closer scrutiny of the Commission’s decisions, and a more “effects based” approach, whilst the Union judges make increasingly use of economic concepts. At the same time, economic analysis and economic theories have become more important, and even decisive, for the resolution of competition cases, in particular in the areas of merger control and abuse of dominance. As a result the Union courts are required, in conducting their judicial review, to assess sophisticated economic analysis and to integrate such concepts into legal norms and consistent case law. This paper discusses the main developments of the Union Courts case law in the use of economic reasoning in competition law. It reviews how economics have gradually gained importance and relevance as well as methods adopted by the Union judges for the acceptance of economic concepts which are gradually transformed into legal norms