Theory and practice of intellectual property
№ 3 / 2024

ISSN (Print) 2308-0361
ISSN (Online) 2519-2744

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33731/32024.311550

Submitted     2024-05-22
Accepted      2024-07-15
Published      2024-09-18

The influence of European integration on the development of the concept of fair competition in Ukraine

Olga Bakalinska
Doctor of Legal Sciences/Dr. Habil. (Law), Professor, Senior Researcher at the Industrial Property Department of the Intellectual Property Scientific Research Institute of the National Academy of Legal Sciences of Ukraine
Ukraine
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1092-0914

Abstract
Bona fide and fair competition is a form of implementation of the fairness principle in economic activity. Fair competition in the modern economic turnover allows taking into account and coordinating diverse interests of market participants, consumers, and the state, as well as achieving a necessary compromise in their implementation. Providing the legal framework for free and easy implementation of fair competition is one of the leading directions in the state’s legal policy implementation.

Fair competition is the embodiment of certain moral, ethical, and socio-historical ideas about good and evil in economic activity, which defines the boundaries of permissible behavior, including competition.  Thus, fair competition is the embodiment of moral and ethical ideals of good and justice, and the implementation of the rule of law principle in economic (competitive) legal relations.

The study of the problems of legal regulation of fair competition gives us the opportunity to assert that in Ukraine, repeated attempts by legislators and representatives of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine to formulate more or less defined rules of fair competition have not been successful. The rules of professional ethics developed by entrepreneurs in cooperation with chambers of commerce and industry and approved by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, recommendations of advisory bodies and international non-governmental organizations and unions, and judgments of the European Court of Human Rights remain an effective mechanism for implementing the principles of good faith of participants in competitive competition.

The key to effective development of economic relations in Ukraine is the gradual integration of Ukraine’s economic system into the global economic world, which is possible only through the unification and harmonisation of the current legislation within the framework of regional and universal trade agreements. For Ukraine, as a candidate country for EU accession, it is important to finalise the implementation of European legislation into the legal system of Ukraine, to decide on the conceptual framework for the protection of trade secrets and the model of unification of European law affecting the development of competition in certain markets at the national level.

Keywords: fair competition, fairness, economic activity

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