Resolution №508 from 25.06.2020 rules whether the Commission on Protection of Competition (CPC) determines the geographic market of goods offed on the Internet. In order to prove unfair competition, it is necessary to be established elements in Article 29 of the Law on Protection of Competition (LPC), namely the existence of economic activity, competition relations between the parties to the correspondence and action or inaction contrary to conscientious commercial practice, which harms or creates a danger of harming the interests of competitors in their relations with each other.
The main precondition for violation is that the parties to the proceeding carries out the competitive economic activity. The Commission acknowledges that the respondent company offers its products not only in a certain territory, but also on the Internet, which leads to promulgation throughout the country. Therefore, CPC determines their geographic market as a national.
Also, the Commission considers that the violation of Article 31 of CPC leads to a causal link with the risk of misleading consumers, which is a result of the defendant’s actions.
However, the Commission considers that the infringements have been committed on the basis of advertisement as unfair competition, goods with appearance, packaging, marking, which mislead consumers as to the quality, characteristics of the good or service and the sale on the internal market, lower from the costs of production and realization of goods.
The motives of the Commission for Protection of Competition are set out in an order, in case № КЗК/1000/2019.
