Paper Titles & Abstracts

Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have a long tradition of cooperation which often conflicts with the discipline imposed by competitive markets. Yet, CSOs are not-for-profit: they restrict competition with a view to further the social goals by which they are statutory bound, whereas commercial companies are presumed to do so with a view to increase profit. This fundamental difference raises the question. Does EU competition law integrate CSOs' distinctiveness or, on the contrary, does it assimilate them to for-profit companies? With this thread running through the paper, Section 1 will examine under what circumstances CSOs are considered as undertakings and, therefore, enter the jurisdictional boundaries of EU competition law. Since the functional meaning assigned to the notion of 'undertaking' means that in most cases CSOs do enter the jurisdiction of competition law, Section 2 will confront CSOs to substantive EU competition law. For reasons of limited space and available case-law, the investigation will be limited to article 101 TFEU which prohibits anti-competitive agreements, although the conclusions of that section will be largely relevant for mergers and abuses of dominant position as well. Section 3 will finally examine whether Member States can finance, through subsidies and preferential tax regimes, CSOs' activities without this being deemed to constitute a state aid prohibited by article 107 TFEU. All along, this paper will argue that competition law provides a normative environment which integrates CSOs' pursuit of the public interest through private means. Rather than assimilating CSOs to mere profit-seeking companies, article 101 TFEU allows them to conclude anti-competitive agreements that express their distinctiveness, while article 107 TFEU gives Member States considerable leeway when it comes to funding civil activities.