The European Union has taken another step to combat those practices with which a company can use its dominant position to expel its competitors or make it more difficult for it to enter the market. Since September 3, 2026, the European Commission adopted the first rules on exclusive abuses of a dominant position in application of article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.
Among the unfair practices that Brussels has focused on most are predatory pricing, this basically refers to selling below certain costs to eliminate competitors, in addition to removing margins, leaving them very small or denying supplies.
Of course, there is an important aspect and that is that it does not mean that any EU company is already prohibited from selling any product below its production cost. Article 102 specifically targets companies that occupy a dominant position and abuse it.
The Directive establishes minimum protection for the 27 countries
The official report of the European Commission (which can be consulted at this link) relating to these standards, dedicated to unfair commercial practices in the agricultural and food chain, also allows us to understand how far European standards currently go in another related area.
The document literally states that the Directive is “binding on all twenty-seven Member States” and establishes “a minimum level of harmonization by establishing a list of prohibited unfair commercial practices.”
Countries, of course, can go further.
“Member States may adopt or maintain national rules that go beyond the unfair commercial practices listed in the Directive,” as long as they are compatible with the internal market.
And here appears a fundamental difference with a general European ban.
The Commission expressly recognizes that “sales or purchases below production costs and resale at a loss are not specifically governed by the Directive.” At the time analyzed by the report, only four Member States had introduced specific provisions on sales or purchases below production costs.
More than 22 million euros in sanctions
This entire system also has national authorities in charge of investigating and sanctioning non-compliance.
According to the Commission, 269 infractions were detected, approximately 27% of the closed investigations, which ended up generating financial penalties of more than 22 million euros.
The most frequent irregularities were delays in payments for agricultural and food products.
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Therefore, the European change especially strengthens control over dominant companies that use artificially low prices to drive out competitors, but does not create an identical and general prohibition on selling below cost for any company in the 27 Member States.