MFN Clauses and Antitrust Enforcement: On a Slow Path to Convergence?

By Ingrid Vandenborre & Caroline Janssens

Parity clauses, known as “most favored nation” or “MFN” clauses, used by online platforms to prevent their business users from offering their goods or services for better terms elsewhere, recently returned to the antitrust spotlight. MFNs had attracted scrutiny from competition authorities across the European Union between 2010 and 2015, leading to divergent approaches and outcomes, ranging from the prohibition of all, or only wide forms of M