to be incompatible with a provision or principle of EEA law. Such rules or practices may, for example, be discriminatory, impose unnecessary burdens or commercial activity or constitute unlawful state aid. ESA can also decide to initiate an investigation if it has information on any domestic legislation or practices that may not be in compliance with EEA law. ESA monitors State aid granted by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway in order to allow fair competition and an open internal market in the European Economic Area. State aid is public support to commercial activities and can take many forms, for example cash grants, tax breaks or favourable loans. As a rule, the EEA Agreement prohibits State aid to prevent negative impacts on trade, but exceptions are made for certain purposes such as environmental protection, regional support and research, innovation and development. ESA’s task is to enforce the general prohibition on State aid that applies in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway but also to decide how exceptions to the general prohibition are to apply. ESA also enforces competition rules in Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Competition law enables markets to work effectively for the benefit of the customer and prohibits anticompetitive coordination between companies, such as agreeing to fix prices or refrain from competing head-on. The rules also prohibit dominant companies from abusing their market power, for example by obstructing their rivals’ ability to compete. In this regard, ESA enjoys wide powers of investigation and may impose fines of up to 10% of global turnover on companies that breach the competition rules. To ensure a uniform application of the EEA competition rules, there is a system of cooperation between ESA and the national competition authorities, the national courts and the European Commission. ESA has been allocated with specific tasks in supervising financial services. ESA has the powers to adopt certain defined decisions that are legally binding on national supervisory authorities and market operators (including credit institutions, insurance companies and investment firms) established in the EFTA States. To ensure consistency within the entire EEA such binding decisions will be adopted on the basis of drafts from the EU European Supervisory Authorities (EBA, EIOPA and ESMA), either on the initiative of ESA or on the initiative of the relevant EU authority. ESA monitors the implementation and application of EEA transport rules. These rules seek to facilitate clean, safe and efficient travel for passengers and goods throughout Europe,