57Secondly, it is true, as stated by the Commission, in essence, in paragraphs 188 and 219 of the 2016 Commission Notice, that the fact that a Member State assigns a public service subject to a legal monopoly to a public undertaking does not entail, in certain circumstances, a distortion of competition, and an advantage granted to the operator of an infrastructure subject to a legal monopoly cannot, in such circumstances, distort competition. However, as the Commission also states, in paragraph 188(b) of that notice, it is necessary, for such a distortion to be able to be excluded in such circumstances, that the legal monopoly not only excludes competition on the market, but also for the market, in that it excludes any possible competition to become the exclusive provider of the service in question.
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