In brief
After an extensive consultation that exposed deep divisions over the future direction of the European Commission’s enforcement of abuse of dominance under Article 102 TFEU, the final Guidelines on exclusionary abuses were adopted on 3 September 2026.
The Guidelines give businesses a clearer framework of the Commission’s thinking on the assessment and enforcement of exclusionary abuses. For the first time, the Guidelines bring together in a single comprehensive “manual” the decisional practice and case law on the assessment of dominance and distortion of effective competition, the application of those principles to particular types of exclusionary abuses, and the principles governing the assessment of objective justification.
Substantively, however, the Guidelines do not mark a return to effects-based enforcement. Rather, they give the Commission a discretionary framework for continued vigorous enforcement, with greater reliance on presumptions and conduct-specific analytical frameworks. Indeed, the economics-led framework that underpinned the 2009 Enforcement Priorities Paper is now expressly withdrawn. Presumptions remain central, and the as-efficient competitor principle remains largely confined to pricing conduct.
For businesses, Article 102 compliance remains highly fact-specific. The key question is not whether conduct has effects in the abstract, but which legal framework applies and what evidence will matter within it. Therefore, the Guidelines do not require a fundamental rethink for companies that have been following Article 102 case law and enforcement developments closely. Their principal contribution is to provide greater structure, additional guidance and a clearer indication of the evidence the Commission is likely to regard as relevant.