Abuse of Dominance

MaltaToday reports Chris Said’s concern over Benna’s price hikes on certain types of milk. In its article MT states that the parliamentary secretary will be asking the competition authority to investigate the rise in prices as“the operator could be enjoying a dominant position in the market.” Now the problem here is that a “dominant position” per se is not at all illegal under competition law. The question of whether Benna has a dominant position in the market for milk or in the sub-market for particular types of milk only comes into play if Benna has in any way “abused” of the dominant position. One would hope that the distinction between the existence of dominance and the abuse thereof is clear in the PS’s mind and that the problem is only in the reporting made by MaltaToday.