Life after Menarini: The Conformity of the Hungarian ompetition Law Enforcement System with Human Rights Principles

• Authors: Tóth Tihamér
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

The corporate human rights development was fueled by the increasing amount of fines imposed on both European and national level. For many years, the jurisprudence of the ECtHR has classified administrative, including competition law enforcement as a quasi-criminal process during which human rights shall be respected to a certain extent. This paper strives to explain the evolution of competition law enforcement in Hungary, with procedural safeguards protecting undertakings having come close to the level of protection provided under criminal law. Of the numerous human rights relevant in competition law enforcement the paper will focus on institutional check-and-balances, and the appropriate level of judicial review. The thoroughness of the judicial review of administrative decisions resulting in fines is critical to the analysis of whether the traditional continental European structure of administrative law enforcement is in conformity with the principles of the ECHR. The narrow interpretation of the prohibition of judicial re-evaluation and judicial deference to competition authorities exhibiting significant expert knowledge is of central importance in this debate.

FR

Le développement des droits de l’homme liés aux entreprises a été alimenté par le nombre croissant d’amendes imposées aux niveaux européen et national. Pendant de nombreuses années, la jurisprudence de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme a classé le processus administratif, y compris l’application du droit de la concurrence, parmi les procédures quasi pénales au cours desquelles les droits de l’homme doivent être respectés dans une certaine mesure. Cet article vise à expliquer l’évolution de l’application des lois de la concurrence en Hongrie, considérant que les garanties procédurales protégeant les entreprises se rapprochent du niveau de protection prévu par le droit pénal. Parmi les nombreux droits de l’homme pertinents dans le domaine de l’application du droit de la concurrence, le document se concentrera sur les aspects institutionnels et sur le niveau approprié de contrôle juridictionnel. La minutie du contrôle juridictionnel des décisions administratives entraînant des amendes est essentielle pour analyser la conformité de la structure traditionnelle de l’application de la loi administrative de l’Europe continentale aux principes de la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme. L’interprétation restrictive de l’interdiction de la réévaluation judiciaire et de la retenue judiciaire à l’égard des autorités de la concurrence faisant preuve de connaissances approfondies revêt une grande importance dans ce débat

Keywords

EN

human rights; competition law enforcement at national level; the Hungarian Competition Authority; judicial deference; administrative judicial review; fines

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Warszawski. Wydział Nauk Ekonomicznych
• Journal: Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies
• Year: 2018
• Volume: 11(18)
• Pages: 35-60

Dates

published

2018-12-30

Contributors

author

Tóth Tihamér

• Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Faculty of Law

References

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Identifiers

DOI

10.7172/1689-9024.YARS.2018.11.18.2