Rejections of complaints on substantive grounds

The special case of rejections of complaints on substantive grounds

Rejections of complaints on substantive grounds are rejections of complaints by which the Commission considers after an assessment of the known facts that the conduct complained of does not infringe Articles 101 or 102 TFEU. They are to be distinguished from rejections of complaints on other grounds which include rejections of complaints for lack of sufficient EU interest, for procedural reasons (e.g. under Article 13 of Regulation 1/2003), or for lack of sufficient substantiation by the complainant of the allegations put forward.

More about Rejections of complaints on substantive grounds

For the exercise of the empowerment for rejections of complaints on substantive grounds the empowerment decision foresees exceptionally the need to obtain the prior approval of both the Legal Service and the Commission departments responsible for the products, services or policy areas in question.

More about the Subject

This leads to the following complicated involvement regime for rejections of complaints: – for rejections of complaints on substantive grounds the prior approval of the departments primarily responsible is necessary (exception to the normal prior information regime); – for rejections of complaints for insufficient grounds for acting by conducting a further investigation (“lack of EU interest”) the departments primarily responsible must be informed (normal prior information regime, see above 3.2.2.1); – no prior information of services other than the LS is required for rejections of complaints on other grounds (see above 3.2.2.2); – for Article 7 letters (announcement by the Commission to the complainant that it intends to reject his complaint, Article 7(2) of Regulation 1/2003 and Article 7(1) of Regulation 773/2004) no prior information of services other than the Legal Service is required (see above).

Resources

See Also

References

• Information about Rejections of complaints on substantive grounds in the Antitrust Manual of Procedures for the application of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU (Internal DG Competition)

Further Reading

• Information about Rejections of complaints on substantive grounds in EU Competition Procedure, 3rd. Edition, Edited by Luis Ortiz Blanco (Oxford University Press)