Brussels, 20/12/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has published a Staff Discussion Paper on the application of EC Treaty competition rules on the abuse of a dominant market position (Article 82). The Discussion Paper is designed to promote a debate as to how EU markets are best protected from dominant companies' exclusionary conduct, conduct which risks weakening competition on a market. Following the consultation process (due to end on 31 March 2006), the European Commission may publish a more formal document in the form of guidelines. In a press release, Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said “Our fundamental aim is to ensure that the EU's powers to intervene against monopoly abuses are applied consistently and effectively, not only by the Commission but also by national competition agencies and courts throughout the EU...” The paper suggests a framework for the continued rigorous enforcement of Article 82, building on the economic analysis carried out in recent cases, and setting out one possible methodology for the assessment of some of the most common abusive practices, such as tying, and rebates and discounts. Other forms of abuse, such as discriminatory and exploitative conduct, will be the subject of further work by the Commission in 2006. The Commission is inviting comments on the present discussion paper by 31 March 2006. Abuse is commonly divided into exclusionary abuse that excludes competitors from the market, and exploitative abuse where the dominant company exploits its market power by - for example - charging excessive prices. The discussion paper deals only with exclusionary abuses. The paper describes a general framework for analysing abusive exclusionary conduct by a dominant company. Where a dominant company is present on a market, competition on that market is already weak. The concern of the competition rules is therefore to prevent conduct by that dominant company which risks weakening competition still further, and harming consumers, whether that harm is likely to occur in the short, medium or long term. For price based conduct, such as rebates, the paper sets out arguments as to whether only conduct which would risk the exclusion of equally efficient competitors should be considered as abusive. The paper also considers whether efficiencies should be taken into account under Article 82, and, if so, how. If taken into account the claimed efficiencies would have to outweigh the restrictive effect of the conduct in question.