Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union is the EU rule that bans abuse of a dominant market position. It does not forbid market power itself; it targets conduct that unfairly blocks rivals, exploits customers, or makes switching harder than normal competition would justify. In practice, regulators look at pricing, bundling, access terms, and contractual rules that can trap buyers in a vendor’s ecosystem.
In cyber security, Article 102 matters because software support and licensing can affect patching, migration, and resilience. A dominant vendor may use license sets, reinstatement fees, or employee-based subscriptions to raise switching costs and slow exit to third-party support. That can leave defenders with fewer options for updates, longer procurement cycles, and weaker bargaining power. Security teams should treat contract terms as part of operational risk: map support coverage, renewal dates, and exit costs so commercial lock-in does not become a security bottleneck.