66It must be borne in mind that merely creating a dominant position by the grantspecial or exclusive rights within the meaning of Article 90 ( 1 ) of the Treaty is not in itself incompatible with Article 86 of the Treaty. A Member State is in breach of the prohibitions contained in those two provisions only if the undertaking in question, merely by exercising the exclusive rights granted to it, is led to abuse its dominant position or when such rights are liable to create a situation in which that undertaking is led to commit such abuses (see, for example, Joined Cases C-115/97 to C-117/97 Brentįem' [1999] ECR I-6025, paragraph 93).
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