ABSTRACT
The question of access to essential facilities is a vexed one. Owners and operators of essential facilities consider it their legitimate right to determine who should gain access to the facility in question and on what terms. The Directorates General of immediate interest to operators of transport infrastructures are Directorates General (DG) IV which deals with competition policy and practice and DG VII which deals with transport. Investigations conducted by both DGIV and DGVII of the European Commission into the practices of owners or operators of transport infrastructures have proved the driving force behind the development of that body of EC case law which has increasingly become identified as that which relates to essential facilities. The European Commission plays an important role in ensuring the proper functioning and development of the common market. The European Commission also has injunctive powers which enable it to order a company to stop abusing its dominant position at any time.
