Competition and Monopolies in UK Law

Mr Carr submits that in many other EU countries those circumstances are regarded as unfair competition. He is probably right about some EU countries, though my general understanding (I could not give chapter and verse) is that in some countries there has been a “rowing back” on what amounts to “unfair competition”. But even if such circumstances amount to unfair competition in some countries, it is surely clear that the concept of “unfair advantage” is an autonomous EU concept.

It seems to me to be arguable that where two corporate entities are part of an "udertaking" (call it "Undertaking A") and one of those entities has entered into an infringing agreement with other, independent, "undertakings", then if another corporate entity which is part of Undertaking A then implements that infringing agreement, it is also infringing Article 81.

A contract in restraint of trade is one in which a party (the covenanter) agrees with any other party (the covenantee) to restrict his liberty in the future to carry on trade with other persons not parties to the contract in such manner as he chooses.

A second difficulty is that the members of the represented class do not have the same interest in recovering damages for breach of competition law if a defence is available in answer to the claims of some of them, but not to the claims of others: for example, if BA could successfully run a particular defence against those who had passed on the inflated price, but not against others.

The second version of non-discrimination referred to is one which "some economists" have proposed. Since the ETSI FRAND undertaking already obliges licensors to offer licences to everyone, it does not add anything to that. It is also weaker than the benchmark FRAND rate approach, which at least applies to all licensees with licences of the same type.

In my judgment the ETSI FRAND undertaking should not be interpreted so as to introduce the kind of hard-edged non-discrimination obligation supported by Huawei without also including consideration of the distortion of competition. Competition law does not seek to prohibit different prices being charged to different customers.

Lastly, good public administration requires decisiveness and finality, unless there are compelling reasons to the contrary.