Approach of this comparative study

The status quo of legal harmonization in unfair competition law

Lack of a ‘European unfair competition law’

European integration is making progress; the European Constitution Treaty has been passed and scholars are discussing a European Civil Code. In the field of unfair competition law only few directives exist and one is tempted to use F. Rittner's words which he once used to describe the law of contract: European directives create only ‘islands’ of harmonized law within each national law that exist without any connection between them. Accordingly the law of unfair competition is still based on many origins and very often overlaps with the law of consumer protection, contract and intellectual property.

Nowadays all modern legal systems offer protection against unfair competition, i.e. against ‘any act of competition contrary to honest practices in industrial or commercial matters’, in short against ‘dirty tricks’. Because of the differing traditions in the Member States the enforcement of infringements of unfair competition law has only been harmonized marginally. In the different European directives courts and administrative agencies are equally named as competent for enforcement. Moreover, an additional self-control is allowed. This form of harmonization leaves everything as it was before. The sanctions are numerous and as disparate as the provisions dealing with material aspects.