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The aim of this article is to shed some light on ownership unbundling provisions, as well as their impact on financial investors, in the context of new rules introduced under the so-called Third Energy Package.
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This article is an attempt to evaluate Spanish legal solutions related to the promotion of renewable energy sources (RES). It makes it possible to identify the factors that underlie the rapid growth in renewables in the first decade of the XXI century, as well as indicate reasons which led to radical changes in Spanish law in 2013 and 2014. The article may also act as a basis for a broader discussion on establishing an effective support system for renewable energy in the context of the new Polish Act on Renewable Energy Sources (signed by the President of Poland on 11 March 2015)
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This article discusses new Polish provisions on consumer rights from the perspective of energy enterprises involved in the sale or distribution of electricity. The analysis includes such issues as: the scope of the application of the Act on Consumer Rights; information duties; specific rules on concluding contracts by phone; and consumers’ right to withdrawal. Particular attention is paid to those provisions of the Act on Consumer Rights which cause particular doubts in the context of the relationship between energy law and consumer law or due to the conditions prevailing in the Polish electricity market.
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The main aim of this article is to evaluate the introduction of the Third Party Access (TPA) rule on district heating markets. Although the TPA rule has been successfully implemented on electricity and gas markets, many doubts can be expressed concerning its suitability to district heating systems. It is also essential to properly define potential challenges connected with the introduction of TPA especially on local district heating markets
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This article discusses new Polish provisions on consumer rights from the perspective of energy companies involved in the sale of electricity. It analyses the relationship between the Energy Law Act and the Consumer Rights Act with respect to the pricing of electricity in fixed-term contracts. The article outlines also the possibilities for automatic renewal of consumer contracts on the electricity market
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This paper presents the impact of Directive MiFID II on the energy market and the structure of electricity companies. It also discusses the objectives of the new provisions and indicates which instruments of the energy market are to be covered by the scope of its application. The Authors elaborate on the subjective scope of the new Directive, its relation to the EMIR Regulation, and the consequences resulting from MiFID II for electricity companies. The schedule of the Directive’s implementation is outlined and the associated challenges noted created by MiFID II for the European energy industry.
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This article presents key aspects concerning the development of products and product models as system products, and their development in the light of the occurring changes in the law and in the organization of the energy market, in particular those meant to improve the competitiveness of the energy market. The paper analyses product models currently in use in the electricity market as well as the specificity of their creation and functioning. Attention is drawn to historical conditions for the creation of product models (system products) in the energy sales market. The article describes the processes involved in the implementation of the products and their servicing in the consumer segment of the energy market as currently used by traders operating therein. Also listed are channels used to reach consumers and marketing support methods of currently used product models. The purpose of this article is to justify, based on historical and market factors, the application of system products in the consumer segment and to outline directions in the development of these models.
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The legislative quality of the RES Act is far from desired standards of law-making. Selected examples have been scrutinized in this paper. This analysis is based around an Attachment to the Executive Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 20 June 2002 on Rules of Law-Making Technique („Rules”). Despite clear legislative drafting directives set out by these Rules, the RES Act will surely form a fascinating object of analysis for many linguist experts. The RES Act includes many examples of careless legislative drafting. In some cases – despite the lack of diligent use of the language – one should be able to determine the meaning of the law without major doubts. However there are also cases which pose greater interpretational challenges. These include: provisions on identifying who may participate in auctions; on determining statutory deadlines under the RES Act; and rules on modernised installations. A separate critical analysis is dedicated to the way how different types of auctions organised by the energy regulatory authority would be identified.
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One of the most noteworthy innovations in the new Turkish Code of Commerce,1 published in 2011, was the capital companies’ obligation to set up a website. It was aimed to institutionalize the companies, ensure that local and foreign investors have the right to get information about the company, and ensure transparency of corporate governance in view of meeting the requirements of harmonization of Turkish Law with European Union Law. Before the Code entered into force on the 1st July 2012, the legislator had shifted on the scope and sanctions of this obligation, especially in response to the reactions from small-scale capital companies. While all capital companies were initially obliged to set up a website, o the last amendments envisaged thatthis obligation applies only to capital companies which are subject to independent audit. The obligation of capital companies to set up a website is regulated in Article 1524 of the Turkish Code of Commerce, which prescribes that only the capital companies which are subject to independent audit are obliged to set up a company website. Companies must fulfill their obligations by opening a website within three months from the date of trade company registration, publishing a certain portion of the site and posting company announcements and notices, as prescribed by the law. In case a company fails to comply with these obligations, administrative and penal sanctions will be applied.
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This essay raises a number of theses in support for a more liberalised approach to EU Net Neutrality rules. It offers a graded system of levels of regulatory intervention, arguing that soft Net Neutrality rules are capable of meeting all positive objectives of regulation without causing the problems generated by hard Net Neutrality rules, such as those currently in place in the EU. Hard Net Neutrality rules prevent Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from making disruptive innovations. Meanwhile, they enable some Content and Application Providers (CAPs) to monopolise many markets via (disruptive) innovations, resulting in newly established dominant positions which have, in many instances, been abused. The hypothesis of the essay is that loosening the rules on Net Neutrality would create competition between ISPs and CAPs as well as (which is even more important) between different CAPs for limited premium speed traffic. Such newly established competition could remedy some antitrust conundrums faced by EU competition enforcers and sectorial regulators vis-à-vis disruptive innovators in the area of electronic communications
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This article discusses the framework of selective distribution agreements within EU competition law following the Coty Germany case and the EU Commission’s 2017 E-commerce report. It argues that the judgment removed, in essence, the limitation of sales via online platforms from the ‘by object box’. In respect of luxury goods, the ban is considered not to infringe competition law at all. In this context, the article addresses one of the judgment’s key points: what constitutes a ‘luxury good’ and evaluates to what an extent this definition can be practically applied. The authors also embark on the conditions under which the restriction is considered proportionate (when applied to non-luxury goods) and point to the risk of divergent interpretations of platform bans across member states. To illustrate the latter, several examples are given from national case-law. The considerations are completed with a brief look at problematic restrictions on the use of price comparison tools
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Western Balkan jurisdictions (Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Macedonia (FYROM)) are often outside the focus of the competition community in the EU. This paper aims to rectify that, by providing an overview of the most interesting competition law developments in these jurisdictions during 2017. The overview will show that, despite similarities in their competition legislation, the observed jurisdictions differ when it comes to their priorities in competition law enforcement: while for some the accent is on merger control, for others it is on antitrust. The paper also highlights certain peculiarities of the observed jurisdictions, even though they are all based on the EU model. These include the existence of a notification system with respect to individual exemptions of restrictive agreements in three out of the four observed jurisdictions.
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2017 brought about a significant and long awaited change in the rules applicable to dawn raids in Poland. After many years of being criticized by scholars and practitioners, the practice of the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection – consisting of the subsequent review of electronic data copied during an inspection at the authority premises and without the presence of a representative of the inspected undertaking, has been finally overruled by the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection. Even thought there are still several improvements that need to be made in order to guarantee the full respect of fundamental rights of inspected undertakings in the Polish legal order, the Court ruling incontestably constitutes a significant step in strengthening the legal position of inspected undertakings in Poland.
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The Security agencies case represents another example of the procedural diversity among Member States in applying national competition rules that mirror Articles 101 and 102 TFEU. In its infringement decision the Croatian NCA specified that the presence at the meeting with competitors and participation in the discussion concerning minimum prices was sufficient to impute to the parties participation in an anti-competitive agreement prohibited under the national equivalent of Article 101 TFEU. As the Croatian NCA investigated an agreement ‘by object’, it considered itself relieved of the burden to demonstrate the anti-competitive effects. The Constitutional Court has taken a different approach and held that the fact that the participants of the meeting have not publicly denounced the results of the meeting, cannot serve as evidence of an anti-competitive agreement. The court also found that the Croatian NCA did not manage to provide a reasonable explanation why the ‘hourly cost of service’ apparently discussed by competitors is the same as ‘hourly price of service’ that appears in the NCA’s decision. As a result, the Constitutional Court’s approach deviated from several substantive presumptions developed by the EU Commission and the EU courts when applying competition rules in relation to anti-competitive agreements. This places a heavier burden of proof on the Croatian NCA in cartel cases when compared to its own preceding practice or the enforcement practices of the EU Commission or other European NCAs.
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