Recently, the European Commission published a communication indicating amendments to its
Article 102 TFEU Guidance Paper in light of the latest EU Courts’ judgments on exclusionary
abuses. In the Amended Guidance and the Policy Brief, the Commission provides some
guidance related to changes in four main areas: the anti-competitive foreclosure definition, the
as efficient competitor (AEC) test, the assessment of loyalty rebates, treatment of refusals to
supply and margin squeezes. The analysis in this article reflects on the evolution of the
application of the AEC test, focused on the most recent CJEU judgment in Unilever Italia. The
article discusses the extent to which the Competition Authorities must examine economic
evidence submitted by the dominant company, and whether they can be refuted without in-
depth analysis. The paper concludes that further clarification is imperative regarding
outstanding ambiguities surrounding the appropriate role and use of the AEC price-cost test in assessing potentially abusive conduct under Article 102 TFEU.