What kind of market failures need to be tackled?
The general aim of ex ante regulation is to ensure effective competition on the market to the ultimate benefit of end-users. Market failures which the regulators and the Commission endeavour to tackle include excessive pricing, denial of access to networks, barriers to market entry and discriminatory treatment. What are the regulatory measures that can be imposed, and on whom? Generally regulatory measures can be imposed only if competition is not functioning in the market analysed. This is the case when a regulator finds that an operator has SMP and thus decides to impose appropriate remedies. The notion of SMP is equivalent to the competition law concept of “dominance”, as defined in the case law of the Court of Justice and the Court of First instance of the European Communities. The Telecoms Rules provide regulators with a ‘tool kit’ of remedies which leaves them with the flexibility to design appropriate remedies to tackle any market failures observed, and so achieve their regulato
