On 03 December, the European Commission published the Communication "Guidance on the Commission's Enforcement Prioirites in Applying Article 82 EC Treaty to Abusive Exclusionary Conduct by Dominant Undertakings".

Compared with the 2005 Staff Working Paper, the Article 82 Communication is much shorter and reflects DG COMP's renewed focus of its Regulation 1/2003 resources on "making markets work better" with further emphasis on "competition on the merits" and "safeguarding the competitive process".

This meeting offers a very first opportunity to explore with its main authors whether the Communication restates existing law and enforcement priorities or whether - as with the recent Section 2 Report - Article 82 will soon explore new paths.