Keywords
Summary

Keywords

Competition - Public undertakings and undertakings granted special or exclusive rights by a Member State - Monopoly in the supply of temporary labour to port users - Monopoly leading to abuse of a dominant position - Not permissible

(EC Treaty, Arts 86 and 90(1))

Summary

Although merely creating a dominant position by granting exclusive rights within the meaning of Article 90(1) of the Treaty is not in itself incompatible with Article 86, a Member State is in breach of the prohibitions contained in those two provisions if the undertaking in question, merely by exercising the exclusive rights granted to it, is led to abuse its dominant position or when such rights are liable to create a situation in which that undertaking is led to commit such abuses.

That is the case where a national law does not merely grant a dock-work company the exclusive right to supply temporary labour to terminal concessionaires and to other undertakings authorised to operate in the port but also enables it to compete with them on the market in dock services. That is because merely exercising its monopoly will enable it to distort in its favour the equal conditions of competition between the various operators on the market in dock-work services and it is led to abuse its monopoly by imposing on its competitors in the dock-work market unduly high costs for the supply of labour or by supplying them with labour less suited to the work to be done.