Competition Law

Competition law governs the maintenance and monitoring of the market. The goal is to protect competition on the market from undesired influences.
Competition law is thus divided into two areas. The one hand, competition law deals with the competition barriers. This area of competition law is also now known as cartel law. It serves to protect competition from interference in the form of market collusion, abuse of power and concentration of power.

However it does not cover protection of competition from unfair practices. This falls under competition law in the stricter sense, which is also referred to as fair practices law. Competition law in and of itself protects competition in the interest of the competitors, consumers and other market participants against fraud. To do so, competition law has created various market codes of conduct which are outlined in the German Act Against Unfair Competitive Practices (UWG). Market participants need to adhere to these market rules. However, they are subject to constant change so that the UWG only represents the basic framework of the rules. The precise interpretation can be found in the verdicts in individual cases. It developed over the past few year into a comprehensive compilation of case-law which can be read in our library under the Competition Law. The central objective of competition law is defining the concept of unfairness. Such unfairness can be both towards competitors (horizontal relationships) as well as towards consumers (vertical relationship). In practice, the focus of competition law is the warning notice. The procedures under competition law and the various phases of claims enforcement can be found under Competition Law Proceedings.