The competition acquis covers antitrust (including mergers), state aid control policy and liberalization.
Chapter 8 includes rules and procedures to fight anti-competitive behaviour by companies (restrictive agreements between undertakings and abuse of dominant position), to scrutinise mergers between undertakings and to prevent governments from granting state aid that distorts competition on the internal market.
In general, the competition rules are directly applicable in the entire Union, and member-states are expected to filly cooperate with the Commission in their enforcement.