POJAM PREDUZEĆA U PRAVU KONKURENCIJE EVROPSKE UNIJE

Abstract

The EU Competition Law refers to the activities of undertakings. The term undertaking is not defined by TFEU although it uses that term. That is why the notion of undertaking is defined in the CJEU case law. According to the Höfner judgment (C-41/90, parа 21) the concept of undertaking encompasses every entity engaged in an economic activity, regardless of the legal status of the entity and the way in which it is financed. Defining approach is functional and answer if some entity is undertaking depends on assessment if its activity can be qualified as economic. Pursuant to Commission v. Italy judgment (C-118/85), economic activity is any activity consisting in offering goods or/and services on a given market. Coverage of such definition is extremely broad and notion of undertaking except companies and entrepreneurs encompasses opera singers, inventors, some supplementary insurance funds, sporting bodies, customs agents, employment office, professional sportsmen, lawyers, doctors, pharmacists, architects, agricultural cooperatives and so on. In order to limit the coverage of undertaking notion in the CJEU case law are developed criterions by which some entities are excluded from undertaking status. These are: State’s imperium (exercising public authority), principle of solidarity and absence of autonomy in deciding over its own conduct on the market.