Kowalik-Bańczyk, Krystyna --- "Regulatory approach to competition law in the practice of the Polish competition authority – a critical assessment" [2015] ELECD 1220; in Drexl, Josef; Di Porto, Fabiana (eds), "Competition Law as Regulation" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015) 174

Book Title: Competition Law as Regulation

Editor(s): Drexl, Josef; Di Porto, Fabiana

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783472581

Section: Chapter 7

Section Title: Regulatory approach to competition law in the practice of the Polish competition authority – a critical assessment

Author(s): Kowalik-Bańczyk, Krystyna

Number of pages: 32

Abstract/Description:

The aim of this chapter is to identify whether there is any ‘regulatory approach’ to competition law in the practice of the Polish competition authority, the Office of Protection of Competition and Consumers (OPCC). The text contains an analysis of different decisions of the OPCC in order to identify the two possible ways of understanding the ‘regulatory approach’. The OPCC acts either in lieu of or in concert with the regulator. Thus there are situations in which the OPCC acts in the regulated sectors despite (or in addition to) the actions undertaken by the sectoral regulating authorities, as well as situations in which this authority acts as the regulator in the markets where competition is very weak or needs to be created and not simply protected. Both possibilities touch on the problem of the limits of the competences of the competition authority and of the borders between actions undertaken by regulators and by competition authorities.