Annotation on the Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 12 January 2023 in Case C‑42/21 P Lietuvos geležinkeliai AB v Commission
In Lithuanian Railways,1
the Court of Justice of the EU (the CJEU) considered the question of whether the doctrine of essential facilities applied to a dominant undertaking that had destroyed its own infrastructure that was also used by competitors. Both the European Commission (EC)2 and the General Court (the GC)3 had previously answered that question in the negative. Adjudicating an appeal filed against the judgment of the GC, the CJEU embraced this strict position and narrowed down the application of the doctrine to ‘access refusal’ conducts. On its side, the CJEU clarified that the doctrine of essential facilities did not apply when assessing whether ‘infrastructure destruction’ conduct done by a dominant undertaking amounts to a violation of Article 102 TFEU.