COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF COMPETITION PROTECTION SYSTEMS IN EUROPEAN UNION AND UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Abstract

The origin and basic principles of legislation concerning the restriction, prevention, distortion of competition, as well as the conduct of monopoly companies, and consequently the abuse of dominant position, should be sought in historical legal circumstances. The American and European competition protection systems have a common goal, and both systems seek to protect consumers, the free flow of goods and services on the market, and access to competitors' markets. However, given the different historical and economic-political circumstances, the material and procedural rules that are driving the systems of protection of competition differ significantly in their content, their application and their institutional set-up in general. The basic principles, doctrines, and methods of enforcing US competition law stem from the provisions of three legislative acts that, while broadly and broadly formulated, still contribute to the regulation of actions that restrict competition and illicit market monopolization. Namely, these are the Sherman Act passed in 1890, the Clayton Act and the law regulating the work of the Federal Trade Commission passed in 1914. At first glance, there seems to be a great similarity between Community competition law and that of the United States of America. However, a detailed analysis shows that Article 81 of Treaty of Rome, which prohibits agreements that prevent, restrict and distort competition and, consequently, price-fixing agreements and the first part of the Sherman Act, which prohibits trade restrictive agreements are almost incomparable. The same is true of Article 82, which prohibits abuse of dominant position and Article 2 of Sherman Act, which prohibits monopolization and the attempts to monopolize.The purpose of this paper is primarily to illustrate the differences, similarities of these two systems. The reason for this, lies in trying to determine how and to what extent economic and legal circumstances affect the choice of the system of protection of competition and, consequently, legal provisions and their application.