COMPETITION IN AIR TRANSPORT SERVICES WITHIN AFRICA 297 practice which: 1) directly or indirectly fixes purchase or selling or any other trading conditions including charging prices on routes at levels, which are in the aggregate, insufficient to cover the direct operating costs of providing the services to which they relate; 2) limits or controls markets, technical developments or investments; 3) involves the addition of excessive capacity or frequency of services; 4) divides markets or sources of supply by allocating passengers, territories or specific types of services; 5) applies dissimilar conditions to similar transactions with other airlines, thereby placing them at a competitive disadvantage; 6) makes the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by the other parties of supplementary obligations which, by their nature or according to commercial usage, have no connection with the subject of such contract; and, 7) has a detrimental effect on consumers. It is curious to note that the law does not consider these practices to be anti- -competitive in themselves. For this to be considered, they are subject to verification of certain requirements. In fact, the legislator sates that, without prejudice to the general nature of the preceding paragraph, any practice, agreement or decision shall not be deemed to be anti-competitive unless: 1) it is permanent and not temporary; 2) it has an adverse economic effect on or cause economic damage to any competitor; 3) it reflects an apparent intent or has the probable effect of crippling, excluding or driving any competitor from the market; and, 4) it limits the rights or interests of consumers. 4. Abuse of Dominant Position The regulations consider that any abuse by one or more airlines of a dominant position within State Parties shall be prohibited insofar as it may affect air transport services at the regional or African continent level. Such abuse may include: a) directly introducing unfair trading conditions to the prejudice of competitors as, for example, the introduction on a route or sector thereof of excessive capacity, which is likely to have an adverse impact upon any competing airline; b) the introduction by an airline on a route or sector thereof of an excessively low price, which is likely to be perceived as specifically designed, targeted and intended to keep out a new airline or to drive out another airline;
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