In view of the COVID-19 outbreak, consumers and businesses face significant challenges. The Hellenic Competition Commission (HCC) supports all economic operators and wishes to keep them informed, especially in response to questions that it has received on how businesses can deal with the current crisis without breaching competition law.
In this context, the HCC transmits the following message on behalf of the European Commission and the European Competition Network (ECN), following on from the recent press releases that the HCC has published on this matter (on 7/3/2020, 16/3/2020 and 21/3/2020 respectively).
«Antitrust: Joint statement by the European Competition Network (ECN) on application of competition law during the Corona crisis
- The ECN is fully aware of the social and economic consequences triggered by the COVID-19 outbreak in the EU/EEA.
- The different EU/EEA competition instruments have mechanisms to take into account, where appropriate and necessary, market and economic developments. Competition rules ensure a level playing field between companies. This objective remains relevant also in a period when companies and the economy as a whole suffer from crisis conditions.
- The ECN understands that this extraordinary situation may trigger the need for companies to cooperate in order to ensure the supply and fair distribution of scarce products to all consumers. In the current circumstances, the ECN will not actively intervene against necessary and temporary measures put in place in order to avoid a shortage of supply.
- Considering the current circumstances, such measures are unlikely to be problematic, since they would either not amount to a restriction of competition under Article 101 TFEU/53 EEA or generate efficiencies that would most likely outweigh any such restriction. If companies have doubts about the compatibility of such cooperation initiatives with EU/EEA competition law, they can reach out to the Commission, the EFTA Surveillance Authority or the national competition authority concerned any time for informal guidance.
- At the same time, it is of utmost importance to ensure that products considered essential to protect the health of consumers in the current situation (e.g. face masks and sanitising gel) remain available at competitive prices. The ECN will therefore not hesitate to take action against companies taking advantage of the current situation by cartelising or abusing their dominant position.
- In this context, the ECN would like to point out that the existing rules allow manufacturers to set maximum prices for their products. The latter could prove useful to limit unjustified price increase at the distribution level.»