Appraisal of Joint Dominance in the Landscape of Co-opetition

Abstract: The accusation of an abuse of joint dominance on the basis of behaviour has been found groundless in Italian Flat Glass. In Airtours, the Commission Decision referring to creation of a joint dominant position and finding that the merger in question was incompatible with the Common Market, has been annulled by the Court as well. Proving the existence of a collusive oligopoly at a fix point of time is not enough in order to sustain the finding of joint dominance; the parties of the collusive oligopoly have to be economically interconnected in such way that the collective strategy adopted is sustainable during a long period of time. This study asserts that the contemporary undertakings can be economically interconnected by means of participation in interfirm networks and co-opetitive interplay. This kind of interaction gives birth to a new form of anticompetitive behaviour, hereby named the implicit collusion.