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This paper analyzes the question how EU and national laws implemented and how courts and regulatory authorities apply two opposing regulatory approaches and the corresponding legally defined images of consumers in market regulation: the active and responsible consumer concept on the one side along with the more protective concept of vulnerable consumers on the other side. The paper examines the normative concept of the consumer from a broad perspective of market regulation by focussing on unfair commercial practices as this is a horizontal instrument involving a broad range of transactions in various markets and because the Unfair Commercial practices Directive 2005/29 specifically lays down the normative concept of the consumer (both ‘average’ and ‘vulnerable’) in its provisions. The analysis proceeds on the basis of the normative standard as developed in the ECJ’s jurisprudence on free movement rules and further provides a case study of two Central and Eastern European Member States – Hungary and Poland. It examines how EU law and national laws implemented, and how the ECJ and national courts and regulatory authorities interpret the normative concepts of the consumer (both ‘average’ and ‘vulnerable’). The specific questions the paper analyzes are: Do the existing normative notions of the ‘average’ consumer and the definition of consumers in EU and national law correspond to public policy discourse on consumers’ active role in regulating markets? How do these laws address the vulnerability of consumers? How do the EU and national law notions conceptually link to each other? And most importantly how do courts and regulatory authorities interpret these notions? The paper finds that while there are clear normative concepts of the consumer in the legislation and EU free movement jurisprudence, their application in other fields of EU consumer law, as well as in national law, demonstrate a more nuanced image of the consumer. The paper argues that the legal rules and the envisaged concepts of the consumer need to be enriched by insights from law enforcement. Moreover, both law and law enforcement must be informed both of how markets evolve and how the role of consumers changes as well as enriched by the results from other social sciences, most notably behavioural economics studying consumer behaviour.
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Unlike other general principles of EU law, which derive from the CJ jurisprudence, the principle of national identity is based on a clear legal provision. Article 4(2) TEU stipulates that the Union shall respect important State functions, like the territorial integrity of the State, maintaining law and order and safeguarding national security. The list of values covered by the national principle identity is open and it is for the Member State to decide what values should be protected by its national identity, while the CJ is only empowered to determine the relevance of national identity under EU law. This article analyses if the principle of national identity could influence the EC examination of State aid and if the EC should refrain from issuing an order to recover incompatible aid, if that aid was to be protected by the Member State’s national identity. There has not yet been a single judgment by the CJ on that issue and the question stays open. The analysis also focuses on the division of competences between Member States and EU institutions in carrying out that analysis, as well as on the requirements for that analysis, including the scope of an examination carried out by EU institutions.
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Infringements of competition law can cause serious harm to both consumers and undertakings. Aside from the development of public enforcement of competition law, much focus has been placed in recent years in the European Union on private competition law enforcement. Lawsuits raised by undertakings that sustained damages from anti-competitive practice concerning the compensation of such damages have historically not been widespread in Europe. No such cases have been recorded in Albania at all yet, despite the fact that its competition protection legislation has provided this possibility since 1995. The main causes of the lack of private competition law enforcement in Albania include the absence of judicial practice and doctrinal approaches in this area. Relevant here is also the inability of Albanian businesses and consumers to react to competition protection cases as they still lack competition law knowledge and as a result of the absence of an appropriate legal framework for class actions. The scope of this article is to analyze the current situation of private competition law enforcement in Albania. The paper emphasizes the current legal framework including existing obstacles to private competition law enforcement and improvements that should be introduced in the context of its competition law, the law of civil procedures and the law of obligations.
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Due to the recognition of their positive market effects, the evolving approach to minimum or fixed resale price maintenance (RPM) creates, in many countries, the requirement of analyzing their true economic outcomes. In the light of newest judgments delivered by the Polish Supreme Court, the purpose of this article is to analyze if it is still justified to qualify RPM as a multilateral practice that restricts competition ‘by object’ under Polish law.
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The aim of this article is to assess the implementation process of the EU energy security policy in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. In the EU, energy security remains acrucial issue for European Energy Strategy, the fundamental goals of which include the security of supply, sustainability and competitiveness. Security of supply should be considered the most important aspect in this context, because it is connected to deep interdependencies between markets and economies, often based on political or even geo-political considerations. This is currently particularly noticeable, among other things, in the relations between the EU and Russia, where – in the event of any potential energy supply disturbances – some CEE countries are considered to be the most exposed. By analysing matters referred to the security of energy supplies, the article aims to determine the scope of activities undertaken by selected CEE countries which are also EU Member States in order to achieve this goal. The paper stresses the significance of cooperation by CEE countries at regional level, and focuses on initiatives and projects meant to ensure the security of their energy supplies. The conclusions of the paper assess some of the success stories as well as failures experienced by CEE countries in the process of building their energy independence.
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The present article discusses economic issues related to the design of optimal regulatory contracts on the example of the urban public transport industry. It highlights the importance of the design of efficient regulatory contracts in the context of changes facing the urban transportation industry in the European Union. Furthermore, it provides an overview of the main issues put forward in economic literature related to the design of regulatory contracts. It discusses several problems relevant in this context such as informational asymmetries, transaction costs, and regulatory capture. It also comments on a selection of views presented in economic literature dealing with these issues. Finally, the article presents the regulatory framework, contractual practices and characteristics of the French urban public transport industry. France is well known for its long standing tradition of contracting between the State and the private sector in transportation. The analysis of the French example may help to prove useful insights in this regard
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A recent amendment to the Act of Competition and Consumer Protection of 2007, which entered into force in January 2015, brought with it a number of changes to the Polish competition law system introducing, among other things, several new legal institutions. This development created the need to issue new soft law guidelines in order to give some clarity as to their application. At the same time, certain pre-existing soft law guidelines of the Polish Competition Authority – the President of the UOKiK – needed updating in order to make them applicable to the new legal conditions. The aforementioned legislative changes were accompanied by an official UOKiK policy statement of openness and transparency. Given this objective, the UOKiK President provided a set of best practices for the Authority, in particular as regards its relations with undertakings. The aim of this paper is to critically review the newly adopted guidelines as well as modifications made to pre-existing soft laws. It emerges from this analysis that although the issuance of any sort of guidelines should be welcomed in general, since it improves legal certainty as to the Authority’s future conduct in individual cases, a number of problems remains which have not been sufficiently or in fact properly addressed
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Competition law is an area which links the economy with the law and is very important for the functioning of a free market economy. Anti-competitive agreements, along with the abuse of dominance and concentrations of undertakings, are the subject matter of the Law on the Protection of Competition (LPC) of the Republic of Kosovo. Anti-competitive agreements can be horizontal or vertical in nature. The following paper deals with agreements and other multilateral practices prohibited under Kosovo’s Law on the Protection of Competition. The LPC explicitly states also specific circumstances where the prohibition does not apply – these are covered by the so called ‘exceptions and allowances’ section of the LPC. In this respect, the LPC has incorporated the entirety of the principles covered by Article 101 TFEU. The insurance market of the Republic of Kosovo was analyzed in the context of this case study, which has all the features of an oligopoly including: a limited number of participating firms, product standardization, interdependence in controlling prices and, difficulty of new market entry. From this perspective, the insurance market is highly problematic as far as violations of the provisions of the law dealing with anti-competitive agreements are concerned. The analysis is conducted based on the enforcement measures undertaken by the Kosovo Competition Authority and reviewed by the judiciary of the Republic of Kosovo. Taking into consideration that Kosovo is a young country facing special transitional challenges and aiming to become a member of the European Union, much needed reforms are to take place still. The aim of this analysis is thus to contribute to further development of competition law in Kosovo through the analysis of current market situation, domestic legislation and its compliance with EU rules.
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It will be argued in this article that the EU Recommendation on common principles for collective redress might have limited impact on the field of competition law due to: several uncertainties regarding the legal standing in class actions; difficulties in their funding; and the risk of forum shopping with cross-border actions. Neverthe-less, Belgium and Great Britain have recently introduced class actions into their national legal systems and addressed some of the difficulties which other Member States were experiencing already. It will also be suggested that the Portuguese model – the ‘Popular Action’ – and recent Portuguese practice may be considered an interesting example to follow in order to overcome some of the identified obstacles to private antitrust enforcement.
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