The concept and place of competition law in the legal system of the EU

Abstract

In the framework of modern reform of competition laws in the European countries, that has arisen due to increasing attention to markets in the field of IT services, in particular software and IT-solutions for business, the nature of competition law and its place in the legal system of each separate state became as one of the most topical issues. Such features are revealed through several characteristics, including the peculiarities of historical development, the level of market concentration, the development of individual industries etc.
 Even though the fact that basic principles of the competition regulation in the European Union are stipulated at the supranational level, their historical basis is the process of development of competition law in individual Member States. The existence of two models of competition regulation at the theoretical level, i.e. European and American, allows, in turn, to distinguish such concepts as "competition", "antimonopoly", "antitrust" and "cartel" law. By the way of definition of the range of legal relations, the question arises as to the affiliation of competition law to the public or private sphere. Due to the specifics of the subject of regulation, the issue of the place of competition law in the general legal system remains open, which leads to a large number of problems, both on the theoretical and practical levels. As for the example, we can indicate, inter alia, the definition of the status and scope of powers of authorities, the nature of sanctions imposed in a result of violation of competition laws and the nature of such liability. In addition, there is a question regarding the nature of the processes carried out within consideration of cases of violation of the legislation on protection of economic competition or review the applications for granting approval on concentration or concerted practices, participants’ rights and obligations in such processes, etc.