“Almost 18 years have passed since the first Commentary on Act LVII of 1996 on the Prohibition of Unfair and Restrictive Practices (Tpvt.) was published with the assistance of the staff of the Hungarian Competition Authority. Over the last two decades very significant improvements have been made to the Tpvt., while the domestic case-law has also been greatly enriched: both of which have been particularly important for the development and operation of this field of law. In the past 25 years – as a result of this slowly beginning but continued development –, domestic competition law has become an increasingly complex field of law, and this has necessitated the preparation and publication of a new, comprehensive Commentary which presents and analyses the regulatory practice. This would have never been possible without the support of the GVH staff members and recognised experts – judges and lawyers. We hope that this Commentary will contribute to the development and better understanding of the jurisprudence. This may be useful not only to professionals but also to those who seek to comply with the law, since it is a priority of the Hungarian Competition Authority to inform the latter more effectively and raise their awareness of competition law.”
The Editors
Since one of the pillars of the Gazdasági Versenyhivatal’s (GVH – Hungarian Competition Authority) activities is to encourage the development and dissemination of competition culture and the culture of conscious consumer decision-making, the GVH decided to publish a comprehensive and complex analytical competition law Commentary as this was missing from the literature. The Commentary describes competition regulation alongside with the case practice in this area, in order to contribute to the uniform application of the law, the efforts to comply with the law and the strengthening of competition law knowledge.
As a result of the work of the GVH’s staff members and competition law practitioners, the book was published in April 2015 by HVG-ORAC Lap- és Könyvkiadó Kft. under the title “Commentary on Act LVII of 1996 on the Prohibition of Unfair and Restrictive Practices”.
The GVH is celebrating its 25th jubilee anniversary this year and the series of ceremonies was opened with the book launch of the Commentary. The event was held at the Curia on 14 April 2015, where the book was presented to the public by renowned practitioners. We believe that the publishing of such a high-quality publication is a worthy celebration of the year of the jubilee, and we hope that it will be useful to both legislators, law enforcement staff, practitioners and members of the public dealing with competition law.