Cover STORY
Cover STORY
Winter 2018 / Issue 56
Unfair Competition and its Impact on Business and Consumers
Taking into consideration that the Competitiveness Strategy of the Republic of Macedonia ( 2016- 2020 ), only mentions consumers indirectly in the measure “ Expansion of exports and internationalization ,” it can be safely said that there is a missed opportunity to promote with appropriate measures and instruments the protection of consumers and competitiveness , which should have been in the interest of both the business sector and consumers .
If we look at the legislation , we come to the conclusion that there is a lack of connection between policies for encouraging competitiveness and consumer protection , especially in the domain of suppression of dishonest market practices . Although dishonest market behavior is prohibited in accordance with Macedonia ’ s Law on Consumer Protection ( LCP ),
Marijana Loncar – Velkova , MPPM , President , Consumer Organization of Macedonia
after the Directive 2005 / 29 / EC on unfair commercial practicess was transposed in 2011 , the same refers to the relations between the business sector and the consumers ( B2C ). However , when talking about an appropriate legal framework , we must conclude that misleading and comparative advertising between the business sector ( B2B ) is not sufficiently regulated .
In this regard , efforts should be made through a special law , where the Directive on misleading and comparative advertising ( 2006 / 114 / EC ), which was adopted in the EU in 2006 , will be transposed . This area is currently only partially regulated by the Law on Unfair Competition ( LUC ), which prohibits unfair competition . Given that the ADCA does not correspond to the innovations and EU law in the area of competition law , the latter points to the fact that an important area of competition law remains unsettled , without entering into the domain of deceptive , misleading and comparative advertising as the mentioned Directive does . Considering that the practice of dishonest market behavior both in B2B and B2C relations , as well as the mechanisms used for its suppression , is insufficiently studied in the Republic of Macedonia , the Consumer Organization of Macedonia ( OPM ) through a 2017 study ( Encouraging fair competition on the market , detecting and analyzing consumer protection issues and suppressing dishonest market practices ( www . opm . org . mk )), addresses in good part the European experience and offers suggestions for improving the administrative and state structures for creating a
8 AmCham Macedonia Magazine