Open AccessThe First Cartel Discovered on the Georgian Market. Case Comment to the Decision of 14 July 2015 on the Car Fuel Commodity Market (Order No 81 of the Chairman of the Georgian Competition Agency)
Author(s) -
Zurab Gvelesiani
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
yearbook of antitrust and regulatory studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2545-0115
pISSN - 1689-9024
DOI - 10.7172/1689-9024.yars.2016.9.13.9
Subject(s) - georgian , cartel , competition (biology) , agency (philosophy) , order (exchange) , economics , commodity , law , business , economy , market economy , international trade , collusion , political science , industrial organization , finance , sociology , ecology , social science , biology , philosophy , linguistics
An oligopoly and a presumed cartel on the fuel market used to be a widely discussed issue and topic of endless speculations in Georgia for years. It was an issue frequently covered by the media, discussed by politicians, studied and analysed by the NGO sector, examined by various experts and commented on by academics. In the absence of competition rules, the fuel market was often used as proof of the unhealthy development of the Georgian economy, in order to demonstrate the need for state intervention (Rimple, 2012; Transparency International Georgia, 2012). It thus came as no surprise that when Georgian Competition Law (hereafter, GCL) was adopted, and the Georgian Competition Agency (hereafter, GCA or Agency) started functioning, the first segment of the economy which the Agency choose to investigate on its own initiative was no other but the fuel commodity market. It was a strategically well chosen subject, which would attract the attention of the public as well as of businesses. It would popularize the new legal field as well as make an example and establish new standards for fair business practices in Georgia.