General competition regulation is generally an ex post regulation. This means that public authorities will not intervene in the markets unless specific abuses of market power are registered, i.e. interventions are made in a reactive manner. In such situations, the competition authorities will examine the specific cases of abuse and will make their rulings. Sector specific regulation, on the other hand, has traditionally an ex ante character which means that rules in addition to the general competition rules are laid down determining in advance how the market players are supposed to act, for instance the rules for asymmetric interconnection regulation with specific provisions on how market players with dominant positions should treat other market players.