CYIL vol. 8 (2017)

RADKA MACGREGOR PELIKÁNOVÁ – MAREK BENEŠ CYIL 8 ȍ2017Ȏ accounting Directive (2013/34/EU) strives for closer harmonization and incorporation of elements of European regulations to national accounting legislatures. 17 Hence, the UCPD opted for an ambitous effort to impose a full cross-jurisdictional harmonization, if not unification, of rules against misleading 18 and aggressive practices impairing the consumer´s freedom, 19 i.e. to apply and enforce the same approach to exaggeration, not telling the truth and defamation in B2C as to harassment, intimidation, coercion and undue influence in common law jurisdictions, as well as continental jurisdictions. 20 Via the UCPD, the EU made the ambitious strategic decision to fight in a fully harmonized manner against unfair commercial practices, while attempting to achieve objectives of consumer protection as well as competition protection in the sense of the protection of the European integration, based on the single internal market. It seems that, after decades of an excessive focus on competition (antimonopoly and antitrust) law, attention was given to the protection of not just the existence of the competition, but as well its daily operation in the single internal market, while keeping in mind consumers. 21 This approach, to combine the anti-monopoly and anti- cartel law, unfair competition law, consumer protection law, and intellectual property law, and to fully harmonize them, was, and still remains, a subject of criticism 22 backed by legitimate categorization and legal tradition arguments. 23 The criticism is further magnified by the most controversial aspect of the UCPD, full harmonization, 24 and by the fundamental conceptual question – does the UCPD really protect and help consumers? What is the true purpose of the UCPD? 25 The arrival of Europe 2020 had undoubtedly the potential to conceptually and strategically readjust and clarify it. Does Europe 2020 make legitimate the full harmonization of UCPD and the “combo” protection of the market fairness and of consumers? 17 JINDRICHOVSKA, I., KUBICKOVA, D., Accounting in Europe , 2017, 14(1-2): 56-66. 18 MacGREGOR PELIKÁNOVÁ, R., The Ephemeral Concept of Parasitic commercial Practices in the EU. EconPapers No. 66/2017 and In: BALCERZAK, A. P., PIETRYKA, I., 9 th International Conference on Applied Economics – Contemporary Issues in Economy , Toruň, Poland, 22-23 June, 2017. Available at http://www.badania- gospodarcze.pl/images/Working_Papers/2017_No_66.pdf. 19 DUIVENVOORDE, B. B., The Consumer Benchmarks in the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. Studies in European Economic Law and Regulation 5. Amsterdam : Springer, 2015, 244 p. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319- 13924-1. 20 MacGREGOR PELIKÁNOVÁ, R., CÍSAŘOVÁ, J., BENEŠ, M., The Ambivalent Nature and Purpose of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. AA Law Forum , 2007, 8, 10-20. 21 TESAURO, C. & RUSSO, C. Unfair commercial practices and misleading and comparative advertising: An analysis of the harmonization of EU legislation in view of the Italian implementation of the rules. Competition Policy International, 2008, 4(1): 193-222. 22 CHRONOPOULOS, A., Legal and economic arguments for the protection of advertising value through trade mark law. Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property, 2014, 4(4): 256-276. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4337/ qmjip.2014.04.01. 23 MacGREGOR PELIKÁNOVÁ, R. , BENEŠ, M., MacGREGOR, R., European (mis)reconciliation of rules against misleading commercial practices – the last decade’s crusade of the Commission and CJ EU. In MAJEROVÁ, I., KOTLÁNOVÁ, E. (eds.), Proceedings of the 14th International Conference “Economic policy in the European Union Member Countries” , 2016, pp. 389-398 of 424. 24 DUIVENVOORDE, B. B., The Consumer Benchmarks in the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive. Studies in European Economic Law and Regulation 5. Amsterdam : Springer, 2015, 244 p. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319- 13924-1. 25 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.

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