CYIL vol. 8 (2017)

RADKA MACGREGOR PELIKÁNOVÁ – MAREK BENEŠ

CYIL 8 ȍ2017Ȏ

Introduction In our post-modern global society, the overlap of business and law is full of contradictions, 2 while competition is getting increasingly intense. Often, individuals follow the principle of utility maximizing, but they are socially oriented 3 and inclined to reject free-riders violating social norms and to reward norm-abiding acts. 4 Generally, competitiveness is intimately linked to economic selfishness and this leads to actions and omissions crippling fair competition and ultimately hurting not only competitors, but consumers as well. This is a big concern for the EU, general doctrines and principles of EU law 5 and EU policies, which are based upon the doctrine of the famous four freedoms of movement in the single internal market. 6 Indeed, even if the EU and EU law evolution and their studies are marked by the blurred distinction between historical truth and reality, 7 it is clear that competition law aspects in the single internal market, including unfair commercial practices, are one of the top concerns of the EU and even EU member states. 8 At the same time, due to the different social, political, socio-economic traditions, regulatory approaches to unfair commercial practices differ dramatically. 9 Well, this is the context of both the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive from 2005 (“UCPD”) 10 and the Europe 2020 strategy from 2010 (“Europe 2020”). 11 The UCPD was adopted to “ contribute to the proper functioning of the internal single market and achieve a high level of consumer protection by approximating laws ” (Art.1 UCPD) via a full harmonization (Art. 4 UCPD). Interestingly, the UCPD, with just two exceptions, follows the average consumer standard set by the Court of Justice of the EU (“CJ EU”). Europe 2020 was issued by the José Manuel Barroso Commission in reaction to the crisis, or better to say to the set of crises of 2007 and 2008, and it was labelled as a “wake-up call”. Europe 2020 consists of a trio of priorities to face a movement of transformation and requires 2 VIVANT, M., Building a Common Culture IP? International Revue of Intellectual Property and Competition law, 2016, 47(3): 259-261. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40319-016-0472-y. 3 HOCHMAN, G., SHAHAR, A., ARIELY, D., Fairness requires deliberation. The primacy of economic over social considerations. Frontiers in Psychology , 6:747, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00747. 4 DIEKHOF, E. K., WITTMER, S., REIMERS, L., Does Competition Really Bring Out the Worst? PLoS ONE, 2014, 9(7): e98977. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098977. 5 MacGREGOR PELIKÁNOVÁ, R., MacGREGOR, R., General doctrines and principles of EU law and their impact on domain names. AA Law Forum , 2015, 6, 29-45. ISSN 1804-1094. 6 CVIK, E.D., MacGREGOR PELIKÁNOVÁ, R., Implementation of Directive 2014/17/EU and its Impact on EU and Member States Markets, from not only a Czech Perspectives. In Kapounek, S., Krutilova V. (Eds.) 19th International Conference Enterprise and Competitive Environment (ECE) Location: Mendel Univ, Brno, Czech Republic, March 10-11, 2016. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences , 220, 85-94. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.05.472. 7 CHIRITA, A.D. A legal-historical review of the EU competition rules. International and comparative law quarterly , 2014, 63 (2): 281-316. 8 MacGREGOR PELIKÁNOVÁ, R., Selected current aspects and issues of European integration . Ostrava, CZ : Key Publishing, 2014, 186 p. 9 MacGREGOR PELIKÁNOVÁ, R., CÍSAŘOVÁ, J., BENEŠ, M., The misleading perception of the purpose of the protection against misleading advertising by the EU law and its impact in the Czech Republic. The Lawyer Quarterly, 2017, 7(3): 145-161. 10 Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 11 May 2005 concerning unfair business- to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market. 11 COM(2010) 2020 Communication from the commission Europe 2020 A strategy for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth, Brussels , 3 March 2010.

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