125It follows from the case-law of the Court of Justice that the maintenance or development of undistorted competition in the internal market can be guaranteed only if equality of opportunity is ensured as between undertakings. To entrust an undertaking which exercises a given economic activity the power to determine, de jure or even de facto, which other undertakings are also authorised to engage in that activity and to determine the conditions under which that activity may be exercised gives rise to a conflict of interests and puts that undertaking at an obvious advantage over its competitors, by enabling it to deny them entry to the relevant market or to favour its own activity (see, to that effect, judgments of 13 December 1991, GB-Inno-BM, C‑18/88, EU:C:1991:474, paragraph 25; of 12 February 1998, Raso and Others, C‑163/96, EU:C:1998:54, paragraphs 28 and 29; and of 1 July 2008, MOTOE, C‑49/07, EU:C:2008:376, paragraphs 38, 49, 51 and 52) and, also, in so doing, to prevent the growth of competition therein to the detriment of consumers, by limiting production, product or alternative service development or innovation.
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