Global Competition Law is primarly a practitioner's guide presenting the most salient aspects of the major competition laws country by country, giving an overview of their structure and most charasteristic elements.
Global Competition Law also provides insight into possible future developments in the field.

Global Competition Law

Competition in Spain is governed by Act No 15/2007 of 3 July 2007 on the Protection of Competition (Ley de Defensa de la Competencia), which replaced former Act No 16/1989 of 17 July 1989. The object of the 2007 Act was to reform the Spanish competition system in order to strengthen the existing mechanisms and provide Spain with the instruments and the optimum institutional structure to protect ef …

Context

Competition in Spain is governed by Act No 15/2007 of 3 July 2007 on the Protection of Competition (Ley de Defensa de la Competencia), which replaced former Act No 16/1989 of 17 July 1989. The object of the 2007 Act was to reform the Spanish competition system in order to strengthen the existing mechanisms and provide Spain with the instruments and the optimum institutional structure to protect effective competition in the markets. Act No 15/2007 particularly takes into account the reform of the EU Competition framework by Regulations No 1/2003 and 139/2004 as well as the Autonomous Communities' competences for the application of the provisions relating to restrictive competition practices. 

In fact, on 11 November 1999, the Constitutional Court held that the Spanish law on the Protection of Competition was unconstitutional insofar as it granted exclusive jurisdiction to State authorities. The Court reasoned that, given that the Spanish Constitution did not list the protection of competition among the powers exclusively attributed to the State, the Autonomous Communities were entitled to exercise some authority in this area. As of 21 February 2002, Act No 1/2002 established procedures allocating authority between the State and the Autonomous Communities. The State retains exclusive authority over the assessment of concentrations, State aid, the issuing of block exemption regulations, representation before foreign courts, and the application of competition rules involving the entire Spanish territory or an area larger than a single Autonomous Community. Where permitted by their own statutes, the Autonomous Communities can exercise powers regarding restrictive agreements, abuses of a dominant position and unfair competition involving conduct within the territory of the Autonomous Community. A consultative body was established by Act No 1/2002 to resolve conflicts of jurisdiction between the State and Autonomous Community authorities.

In order to take account of the system of decentralization in application of the competition rules set up by Regulation No 1/2003, the commercial courts (Juzgados de la Mercantil) can now directly apply the provisions of Act No 15/2007 on restrictions of competition. As in most EU countries, the Spanish Act on the Protection of Competition governs agreements restricting competition, abuse of dominance and mergers. Like EU law, it also has provisions addressing State aid. Unfair practices that may restrain competition are covered either by the Act on the Protection of Competition or by Act No 3/1991 of 10 January 1991 on Unfair Competition (Ley de Competencia Desleal), which now governs abuse of economic dependency, previously covered by Act No 15/2007. Finally, a third Act may apply where the parties to a transaction all belong to the retail sector, namely Act No 7/1996 of 15 January 1996 on the organization of small retail trade (Ley de ordenación del comercio minorista). This Act was amended in 2018 in order to specify that resale at a loss in only prohibited when deemed to be unfair within the meaning of Directive 2005/29.

Act No 15/2007 has been supplemented by an application regulation, the Defense of Competition Regulation (Reglamento de Defensa de la Competencia), approved by Royal Decree No 261/2008 of 22 February 2008, which lays down the set of rules applicable to agreements of minor importance and the framework of merger procedures, competition and the review of State aid.

Finally, Royal Decree-Law No 9/2017 of 26 May 2017 transposed EU Directive 2014/104 on claims for damages arising from  competition law infringements into national law. This new piece of legislation amended both Act No 15/2007 and Act No 1/2000 on Civil Procedure. 

The administrative body in charge of the enforcement of the rules laid down by Act No 15/2007 is the Comision Nacional de los Mercados y la Competencia (CNMC - National Markets and Competition Commission) which merged, six sectoral regulators in 2013.

On 29 June 2023, Spanish Royal Decree-Law 5/2023 came into force, introducing some new amendments to the Spanish Competition Act. These amendments include, inter alia, the transposition of the ECN+ Directive.

Pursuant to Section 1 the Act applies to behavior that has an anticompetitive effect on the whole or part of Spanish territory, irrespective of the location of the undertakings concerned.

The Act is applicable to restrictions of competition stemming from the exercise of other administrative powers or caused by the actions of public authorities or public undertakings not derived from the enforcement of another statute (Section 4). The CNMC which now brings together six previously separate sectoral regulators, applies the provisions of the Act, especially those related to abuse of dominance, in order to deregulate network industries (Section 2.3).

Global Competition Law

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Les notions juridiques connexes

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Les notions juridiques connexes

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