EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS

EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS 2022

Prague, Czechia

that the state’s economic system is to be based on the combination of two ideas: the market economy and the social state. Pursuant to Art. 20 and 22 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, the legislature may limit contractual freedom by shaping the remuneration of employees or authors in the form of minimum wages. It is related to their weaker economic position (Safjan, Bosek, 2016). However, the question arises whether the social market economy model protects workers’ rights sufficiently? Is there a balance between the requirements of the free market and securing the needs of employees? It is also worth mentioning the principle of sustainable development, which is also guaranteed by the supreme law in Art. 5 stating that the Republic of Poland “shall ensure the protection of the natural environment pursuant to the principles of sustainable development”. Thus, there is a third element of the socio-economic system: economy understood as a free market, ensuring social security and environmental protection. The state must therefore ensure the balance between three aspects: economy, society, and ecology. This issue was also taken into consideration by other competition authorities to evaluate applicable business sectors or assess the level of competition between companies/institutions. The problem is that the current tools are difficult to use or inadequate to assess competition issues between biological systems in the digital world: “Further economic thinking and an understanding of the business models of ecosystems are required to allow competition authorities to make informed and relevant decisions about competition on digital markets” (Jenny, 2021). 4. The position of employees and labour market power As mentioned above, the economic system influences the position of employers and employees on the labour market. In the area of labour law, the antitrust clauses aim at reversing the weakening of antitrust enforcement, the extent that it relates to, and has reinforced the power that employers have to set wages and working conditions for their workers, without countervailing power on the part of workers who have limited capacity to leave for another job in order to increase their compensation. The worst situation is for the employees of the labour market monopsony, i.e., when there are few potential employers, when the process of finding another job is expensive, or an employee is attached to their present place of employment, or by family commitments, or the need for health coverage or other job related benefits. Under such circumstances, employers are able to profitably pay their workers less than what their contribution to production is (marginal productivity): while some workers quit because of such abuse, enough workers stay to make wage suppression beneficial.

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