1 LOYALTY REBATES AS AN EXCLUSIONARY PRACTISE IN THE EUROPEAN COMPETITION LAW ABSTRACT This master thesis treats loyalty rebates in the light of European competition law when applied by dominant undertakings and analyses its consequences. It describes when such practise might be considered by European Union authorities as an abuse of a dominant position as it has negative impact on the competitors by inducing customer's loyalty to the dominant undertaking. It depicts its position in the European competition law system and compares it to other practises that influence the market in a similar way. Also, it classifies different types of loyalty and other types of rebates and explains how such rebates can force a customer to acquire increasing portions of his demand from the dominant undertaking and how they can damage its competitors. The thesis also offers a critical view on a very strict treatment of this practise by European institutions in the past and it arguments by several positive effects that loyalty and other types of rebates may have. Simultaneously it takes into consideration the newest decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Intel case from September 2017 which will hopefully affect EU institutions' approach to this practise as it broke well-established per se interdiction of...

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