Marché intérieur et concurrence – réflexions à partir de l'expérience portugaise

According to the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic, one of the primary duties of the State is « to ensure the efficient operation of the markets, in such a way as to guarantee a balanced competition between businesses, counter monopolistic forms of organization and repress abuses of dominant positions and other practices that are harmful to the general interest » (art. 81? of the CRP). The European integration leads to substantial legislative changes in the Portuguese legislation. The Portuguese antitrust regulation is inspired by the rules adopted by the European Union, the decisions of the European Commission and the ruling of the European Court. Very important changes occurred in 2003, by the creation of the independent authority on competition (Autoridade da Concorrência) and by the new competition law (Law n? 18/2003). Recently, the regulation on competition has been changed. This reform took place with the Law n? 19/2012, 8th May. This reform is the result of the investigation and experience of the Portuguese Competition Authority, the research of the Portuguese doctrine and the conditions imposed by the « Memorandum of Understanding » signed by Portugal in 2011. The present research highlights the recent experience of competition law in Portugal, the alignment with the European Union regulation and practices. To achieve this goal, a special attention is given to the Portuguese Competition Authority. Besides the public enforcement, this article analyses the « state-of-the-art » of the private enforcement of the competition law in Portugal. In this time of crises, the competition is a tool of economy recovery or law standards must be relaxed ? The priorities of the competition policy seem to suggest that the Portuguese Authority of Competition sees the competition policy as a tool to the competitiveness.