Original scientific paper
Judicial Review in Competition Cases in Croatia and Comparative Jurisdictions
Dubravka Akšamović
; Faculty of Law, Josipa Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Osijek, Croatia
Abstract
The paper explores the issue of judicial review in competition cases. The subject of analysis is the procedural safeguards and the standard of judicial review in Croatian, EU, German and Slovenian law. While enforcement of competition law and policy on European level is largely harmonized and similar procedures and standards are applied by national competition agencies across Europe, this is not the case with judicial review of the same type of cases. A judicial system in general and judicial review in particular (as an integral part of a national judicial system) are much more influenced by the national legal order. As a result, different procedural and substantive legal standards may be applied in competition cases by different national courts or the EU Court. Since judicial protection against competition authorities’ decisions is an important link in the overall chain of EU competition law enforcement policy, it is important that at least a similar level of judicial protection is granted to undertakings across Europe. However, the research conducted here seems to suggest that this is not the case. There are significant differences between the compared jurisdictions regarding the court procedure, parties’ rights, and the right to appeal, the standard of judicial review, and some other aspects, which consequently means uneven judicial protection in the same type of cases. The research showed that the highest judicial standards are applied by German courts who ex officio conduct exhaustive analyses of all the facts and evidence. Similar judicial standards are applied before the EU Court, while there is room for improvement in judicial protection in Croatia and Slovenia. In both those jurisdictions the parties to the procedure are not entitled to present new evidence in an appeal. Thus, the author asks when the parties can present evidence if not before the court and how the parties are going to defend themselves if they are not entitled to introduce new evidence. Furthermore, the research also showed that of all the said jurisdictions, Croatia is the only jurisdiction without the right to appeal against first instance decisions. Since the right to appeal against first instance court decisions is one of the basic procedural rights prescribed by international treaties as well as by the Croatian Constitution, this regulatory imperfection should be remedied in the future. In conclusion, the author proposes several regulatory solutions which would bring improvements to the current system of judicial protection in competition cases in Croatia.
Keywords
competition law; judicial review; procedure before the EU Court; economic analysis; comparative law
Hrčak ID:
186929
URI
Publication date:
15.9.2017.
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