Definitional and evidential aspects of concerted practices under article 85 EEC

Abstract

In setting up provision for the creation of a common market the EEC Treaty makers had to acknowledge the fact that the removal of customs duties and the elimination of quantitative restrictions on trade would be futile if national markets could be maintained by other artificial obstacles to trade put up by undertakings and the authorities of the various member states. The Commission made quite clear its view that "competition is the best stimulant of economic activity since it guarantees the widest possible freedom of action to all," and on this foundation that competition is a way to ensure that the envisaged common market functions as a genuine market, Article 3(f) of the Treaty of Rome makes provision for the "institution of a system ensuring that competition in the common market is not distorted."