In order to ensure that the internal market functions as efficiently as possible, it is not permitted for firms to abuse a dominant position when this affects trade between EU countries.

Abuse of a dominant position arises, for example, when a firm is able to act without taking account of competitors, suppliers and purchasers of the firm’s products, forces purchasers to accept unreasonable prices, limits production and sale and applies different conditions for supplies of the same value.

An example of the abuse of a dominant position occurred in connection with the organisation of the football World Cup in France in 1998. The French committee, CFO, had a monopoly on the organisation of the championship and had organised the sale of tickets for matches in the final round of the Cup so that it favoured fans with a residence in France, whereas football fans resident outside France had difficulty in obtaining tickets for the matches.

A total of 1 547 300 tickets had been made available to the public. CFO had organised it in such a way that customers in 1996 and most of 1997 could only buy the tickets direct from CFO (whereas in 1998 they could also buy tickets via the national football associations and certain travel agencies).

The condition to purchase a ticket from CFO in 1996 and 1997 was that purchasers had to give a postal address in France to which CFO could send the tickets. This demand meant that a very large number of football fans outside France could not buy the tickets which were offered directly by CFO (altogether nearly 575 000 tickets).

In a Commission decision from 1999, it was established that CFO had abused its dominant position on the market for the sale of football tickets by applying selling methods in 1996 and 1997 which discriminated against citizens outside France. The requirement of a postal address in France constituted unreasonable conditions of sale and led to a limitation of the sale of tickets to football fans outside France.

Normally the Commission imposes substantial fines in these cases taking into account the gravity and duration of the offence but, since the discriminatory ticket arrangement corresponded to the practice followed in previous final rounds of the World Cup and the rules were not sufficiently clear, the Commission decided that it would only impose a symbolic fine of 1 000 euros on CFO.

The decision should nevertheless be seen as a signal that the Commission in future expects organisers to ensure that their ticketing arrangements are in conformity with EU competition rules and do not discriminate against citizens of other EU countries.