Competition Law

Competition law (also known as antitrust law) is the body of law which that promotes or strives to maintain fair market competition by regulating anti-competitive behaviour of goods/service providers. Competition is the driving force of a market economy. It encourages price and cost reductions, innovation and improvement in quality. Lack of fair competition harms businesses and consumers alike.

Competition law functions by prohibiting activities such:

• Anti-competitive agreements between businesses (eg. for the purpose of price-fixing, market sharing, bid-rigging, etc…)

• Abuse of a dominant position (eg. charging unreasonably high prices or driving out competitors by selling at artificially low prices, making the sale of one product condtional on the sale of another product, etc…)

• Anti-competitive mergers and acquisitions (eg. new entity assumes a dominant position which may lead to abuse)

The EU has an impressive body of competition law, based on its philosophy that a system of fair competition forms an integral part of the internal market. In Malta, competition law is mainly regulated by the Competition Act (Chapter 379 of the Laws of Malta) and subsidiary legislation made thereunder, all of which is based on EU competition legislation.

The Office for Competition, which forms part of the Malta Competition and Consumer Affairs Authority, is the body which applies competition law in Malta. Decisions of the Office for Competition may be appealed on both points of fact and law by resorting to the Competition and Consumer Appeals Tribunal, with the ultimate appeal on points of law lying with the Court of Appeal.

In the field of competition law, Lexvirtualis™ offers legal advice and assistance in connection with the following:

• Anti-competitive and collusive agreements

• Mergers and Acquisitions

• Abuse of dominant position

• Price fixing / cartels

• Exclusive dealing

• Restrictive trade practices

• State aid

• Appeals