§8.5.2 Industry-wide vs. firm-specific overcharge and passing-on

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION Guidelines for national courts on how to estimate the share of overcharge which was passed on to the indirect purchaser · European Union

(181) The passing-on of overcharges by a given purchaser vis-à-vis its own customers typically differs depending on whether the purchaser's competitors are also affected by the overcharge or not. When a single purchaser is impacted by the overcharge the passing-on will necessarily be firm-specific. By contrast, if all purchasers at a given level of the supply chain are impacted by the overcharge one may consider passing-on rates for each firm but also the industry-wide passing-on. (182) If only one purchaser is affected, i.e. the overcharge is firm-specific, the passing-on effects could be rather limited, in particular when this purchaser is not able to affect selling prices in its market due to intense pressure from its competitors. (183) Conversely, where all the undertakings in a market are affected by an overcharge, i.e. the overcharge is industry-wide, all of the undertakings will face higher input costs, implying that they may be able to pass on at least part of the overcharge to their own customers. However, an industry-wide overcharge may still affect competitors differently.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07