EU competition policy acts as an important buttress to the Single European Market, with Article 82 EC specifically prohibiting the abuse of a dominant position in the common market or a substantial part of it. Therefore the substantial part notion acts as a boundary or subsidiarity test,...

Article 2 of the Treaty of Rome describes the task of the European Community as to encourage stability and growth "by establishing a Common Market and by progressively approximating the economic policies of Member States".

In a 2008 article in the EU's Competition Policy Newsletter, Peter Lowe, Director General of the EU Commission's Directorate Competition, synthesised the experience of his office with regard to the design of competition policy institutions for the 21st century. A year earlier, he had co-authored...