Law Against Unfair Competition Towards a New Paradigm in Europe?
Unfair competition law is concerned with fair play in commerce. It is generally regarded as necessary – together with antitrust law – in order to steer competition along an orderly course, and thereby to contribute to promoting an efficient market system
- PDF / 3,351,160 Bytes
- 274 Pages / 439.37 x 666.142 pts Page_size
- 4 Downloads / 397 Views
MPI Studies on Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law Volume 1
Edited by Josef Drexl Reto M. Hilty Wolfgang Schön Joseph Straus
Reto M. Hilty Frauke Henning-Bodewig (Editors)
Law Against Unfair Competition Towards a New Paradigm in Europe?
123
Professor Dr. Reto M. Hilty Dr. Frauke Henning-Bodewig Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law Marstallplatz 1 80539 Munich Germany [email protected] [email protected]
Library of Congress Control Number: 2007929637
ISBN 978-3-540-71881-9 Springer Berlin Heidelberg New York This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilm or in any other way, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Violations are liable to prosecution under the German Copyright Law. Springer is a part of Springer Science+Business Media springer.com © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007 The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Production: LE-TEX Jelonek, Schmidt & Vöckler GbR, Leipzig Cover-design: WMX Design GmbH, Heidelberg SPIN 12045211
64/3180YL - 5 4 3 2 1 0
Printed on acid-free paper
Preface Unfair competition law is concerned with fair play in commerce. It is generally regarded as necessary – together with antitrust law – in order to steer competition along an orderly course, and thereby to contribute to promoting an efficient market system that serves the interests of all participants. Nevertheless the significance of unfair competition law varies from one country to another. Whereas in some countries, such as Germany, it is seen as one of the most effective commercial laws, in other countries, such as the United Kingdom, it leads rather a shadowy existence. From the outset, this discrepancy laid in the differences in national legal systems. Whilst those continental European countries that possessed a written civil law when instances of unfair competition emerged, more or less successfully attempted to incorporate them in the existing tort law system, protection in the common law countries was restricted to some narrowly defined torts, in particular “passing off ”. At this stage one of the few shared convictions was, that the protection of “honest entrepreneurs” was at issue; on this basis, in 1900, the only regulation at the international level until now was enacted, Art. 10bis of the Paris Convention. Yet even this foundation is increasingly fragile. The crucial factor is namely the controversial role of consumer protection in unfa
Data Loading...
