EU Competition Law and Healthcare: when solidarity meets the market

This work explores the applicability of EU competition law to healthcare systems, focusing on the legal qualification of healthcare-related activities as economic or non-economic. It reconstructs the case law and doctrinal debate concerning the notion of economic activity, the concept of undertaking and the role of solidarity in limiting the application of EU competition rules. The thesis further examines whether the framework of Services of General Economic Interest may provide a more coherent legal route for reconciling market mechanisms with healthcare solidarity. Finally, the analysis is applied to the Italian healthcare system, in order to identify the areas in which competition law may become relevant without undermining the public service nature of healthcare.