Competition Law and Unfair Competition Law

Operating in the market involves the obligation to respect a series of rules. To establish this order, two areas of Law have been developed: Competition Law and Unfair Competition Law.

Competition Law seeks to establish the appropriate tools to guarantee the proper functioning of market processes. Competition is healthy, but it must be limited to a good practice.

Unfair Competition Law prosecutes actions contrary to the requirements of good faith. All of the following are considered unfair practices: misleading actions, misleading omissions, aggressive practices, actions of denigration, actions of comparison, passing-off, exploitation of others' reputation, trade secret violation, inducement of breach of contract, breach of the standards, discrimination and economic dependency, sale at a loss and illegal advertising.

Only the protection granted by industrial and intellectual property laws is not usually enough to prosecute seriously damaging behaviours. Hence, we will have to analyze if these are considered offences in accordance to the competition and unfair competition laws.