Legal protection against unfair competition under the economic legislation of Ukraine

Abstract

The article examines the legal nature of unfair competition, regulations governing competition, methods of protection of economic entities in commodity markets, as well as the application of sanctions for violations of Ukrainian legislation on economic competition. According to the Law of Ukraine "On Protection against Unfair Competition", unfair competition is any action in competition that contradicts the rules, trade and other fair practices in business. Unfair competition includes the misuse of an entity’s business reputation, the creation of barriers to the entity’s competition and the achievement of undue competitive advantages, the unlawful collection, disclosure and use of trade secrets. The main methods of unfair competition include economic espionage, counterfeiting of competitors, bribery and blackmail, misleading consumers, fraud with business reporting, currency fraud, concealment of defects and more. The article considers the concept of fair and unfair competition from the point of view of different scientists. There are different approaches to the concept of "unfair competition" in the scientific doctrine, for example, the scientist N. Saniakhmetov notes that "unfair competition is a violation of rules of conduct that have developed, are widely used in business and are recognized by entrepreneurs as mandatory business rules that harm relations of fair competition and freedom of entrepreneurial activity ". According to O. Bezukh, "unfair competition arises as a result of illegal use of other people's intellectual products for commercial purposes, business reputation, other achievements of enterprises, goods or activities of a competitor, misleading consumers about competitors and gaining illegal advantages in competition." The general definition of unfair competition is contained in the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, so according to this document, unfair competition is any act of competition that is contrary to fair practice in industrial and commercial matters. The article analyzes the mechanisms of combating unfair competition, highlights the administrative and judicial methods of combating unfair competition. It turned out that the body that deals with the fight against unfair competition is the Antimonopoly Committee. The article analyzes judicial practice in recent years. The provisions of foreign legislation on combating unfair competition have also been studied.