Competition

Competition in the European Union Law

Concept of Competition provided by the “Glossary of terms used in EU competition policy” (Antitrust and control of concentrations, published in 2002): A situation in a market in which sellers of a product or service inde-pendently strive for the patronage of buyers in order to achieve a particular business objective, for example, profits, sales and/or market share. Competitive rivalry between firms may take place in terms of price, quality, service or combinations of these and other factors which customers may value. Fair and undistorted competition is a cornerstone of a market economy and the European Commission has been vested with the powers necessary to oversee and enforce EU competition law to ensure effective competition in the internal market.