#52026SC0125EU Competition Policy 2025 Staff Working Document
AI-generated summary for informational purposes only. Not legal advice. See the original source for the authoritative text.
This document explains how the European Commission enforced and updated EU competition rules in 2025. It covers cartels, abuse of market power, mergers, State aid, foreign subsidies, and digital gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act. For businesses, the main message is that competition enforcement remains active and broad. Companies in sectors such as automotive, food delivery, pharma, energy, finance, technology, transport, and manufacturing should expect close scrutiny of collusion, no-poach arrangements, restrictive licensing practices, mergers, and subsidies that may distort EU markets.
AI-generated summary. May contain errors. Refer to official sources for legal decisions.
Key Changes
- Summarizes 2025 EU enforcement activity across antitrust, cartels, mergers, State aid, foreign subsidies, and digital markets.
- Highlights major cartel fines, including cases involving car manufacturers, food delivery platforms, pharmaceutical ingredients, and automotive batteries.
- Signals ongoing updates to EU competition procedures, dominance guidance, merger guidelines, technology transfer rules, and enforcement tools.
Obligations
What this law requires
Undertakings must not enter into agreements or coordinate conduct with competitors where the object or effect is to restrict competition in the EU internal market under Article 101 TFEU.
Undertakings may rely on Article 101(3) TFEU only where a restrictive agreement ultimately fosters competition, such as by promoting technical progress or improving distribution, while allowing consumers a fair share of the resulting benefit.
Dominant undertakings must not abuse a dominant position by imposing unfair purchase or selling prices or other unfair trading conditions under Article 102 TFEU.
Dominant undertakings must not abuse a dominant position by limiting production, markets, or technical development under Article 102 TFEU.
Suppliers must not secretly coordinate with competitors to introduce or use a surcharge as an industry-wide standard, even where surcharges may otherwise be legitimate tools for reflecting raw material cost changes.