Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, ANTITRUST NEWS: Austrian waste management company suspected of abusing dominance of market, (Jul 18, 2013)

By Jody Coultas, J.D.

The European Commission has sent Altstoff Recycling Austria AG ("ARA") statements of objections concerning its view that ARA may have abused its dominant position on the markets for the management of packaging waste (mainly packaging made of plastic and metal) in Austria by hindering competitors to enter or expand on these markets. A statement of objections is a formal step in Commission investigations into suspected violations of EU antitrust rules.

ARA may have hindered competitors from accessing the household collection infrastructure, which consisted of containers, bags, and related collection services set up on a contractual basis by companies collecting waste ("collectors") and municipalities for and on behalf of ARA in the whole of Austria. Since Austrian law required a nation-wide network of collection services and because the setting up of duplicated collection infrastructures is impossible, any competitors were dependent on receiving access to the existing ARA-infrastructure. ARA may have refused such access to potential competitors.

The EU also believed that ARA may also have foreclosed competitors from the market for the management of commercial packaging waste. A few small competitors exist, but the Commission believed that ARA used its monopoly for household packaging waste to extend its reach into the market for commercial packaging waste. ARA offered certain organizations and companies to collect waste directly from their premises via ARAcollectors and ARA-containers. The ARAcontainers could only be used for ARA-waste. Clients do not want to have several containers for each type of waste on their premises. Therefore, in order to avoid any complications in dividing the waste, the affected organizations took care that their suppliers choose ARA as waste manager. By this, ARA effectively shut out competitors from a part of this market.

The Austrian government recently submitted a new draft waste law to the Austrian Parliament aimed at opening the markets for the management of packaging waste for competition. Although competition had been legally possible, ARA's may have prevented it. It was therefore important to ensure that the legal possibility of market entry will ultimately translate into effective competition.

News: Antitrust