The relationship between Unfair Competition Law and Competition Defense Law in Spanish Law after Directive 2014/104/UE transposition into national Law and recent Supreme Court rulings

Gustavo Andrés Martín Martín

Keywords

Unfair competition; Antitrust Law, article 15.2 Unfair Competition ACT (LCD); simple infringement; competitive rules; Directive 2014/104/UE.

Abstract

The relationship between Unfair Competition Law and Competition Protection Law has been a continuous discussion in Spanish Law since the inception of 1963 Act for prevention of restrictive practices on competition. Today, Spanish scholars admit without hesitation the inner unity of the discipline “Competition Law”. However, this relationship has still some important questions to be answered.
One of them is the relationship between actions based on Unfair Competition and those based on Competition Law, giving that article 15.2 Unfair Competition Act (Ley de Competencia Desleal) provides actions in cases of violation of competitive rules. Traditionally, it has been considered by “competitive rules” the rules set in articles 101 and 102 TFEU (articles 1 and 2 LDC) and all those which, being irrelevant their administrative or civil nature, set up directly the market structure, strategies and competitive conduct of market agents, addressed to promote or guarantee their own services or a third party ones. Throughout the present paper, we defend de distinct object of the both disciplines in the application of article 15.2 LCD. For, article 15.2 LCD is not designed to control antitrust infringements.