Mario Monti’s Legacy for Competition Policy in Article 82

Commissioner Mario Monti’s impact on Article 82 of the EC Treaty during his period as EC Competition Commissioner has not been as revolutionary as his impact on other areas of EC competition law. Nonetheless, the European Commission has done serious work on Article 82 cases, notably taking several important decisions: Microsoft in the area of refusal to supply and tying and Michelin II on rebates. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the Court of First Instance (CFI) have also made important contributions to the law on Article 82 with their judgments in IMS Health and in appeals from these rebates cases. On a legislative front, Commissioner Monti has brought the Commission’s modernization program through to adoption of a new enforcement system in May 2004, with significant re-emphasis of Commission activity on cases with market power, interesting initiatives to allow dominant companies to benefit from Article 81(3) and a general review of Article 82 enforcement