The master’s thesis examines a specific case of abuse of a dominant position under the essential facilities doctrine. In European competition law, this doctrine constitutes a legal construct pursuant to which an undertaking holding a dominant position, subject to certain conditions, must grant access to a facility indispensable for effective competition in a downstream, vertically related market, under fair and reasonable terms. Since the doctrine interferes both with the contractual freedom of undertakings and with intellectual property rights, its application in pursuit of the objectives of competition law is justified only in exceptional circumstances. The thesis analyzes the conditions for the application of the essential facilities doctrine as they have been developed in the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. Attention is also devoted to the main criticisms of the doctrine, with particular emphasis on the question of its negative impact on firms’ investment incentives. Moreover, the thesis examines the transplantation of the doctrine into the practice of national courts as well as its application within the Slovenian legal framework. Since the essential facilities doctrine partially overlaps substantively with sector-specific regulation, the relationship between the two is also addressed.
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