Comparative Legal Analysis of the Regulation of Combating Monopolism and Unfair Competition in the Republic of Azerbaijan and Worldwide
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.57125/FS.2026.09.20.02Keywords:
Antitrust, Enforcement deficits, Institutional capacity, Legal transplantation, Post-Soviet transition, Procedural transparency.Abstract
This paper presents a legal comparison between the laws of the Republic of Azerbaijan on combating monopolistic and unfair competition and international legal regulation. The study covers five jurisdictions: Azerbaijan (main), the European Union, the USA, Georgia, and Kazakhstan. Competition laws, anti-monopoly laws, and enforcement guidelines were the primary sources of law examined and considered in the period from 2003 to 2021. The methods of legal research employed in the study are comparative legal analysis, which is used to map the differences between and among jurisdictions, doctrinal interpretation, used to classify strengths and weaknesses of the laws and regulations, and normative analysis, used to design possible changes. Key findings are that Azerbaijan is considerably more lax than the EU and the US in enforcing laws, and that its legislation is in part, similar to that of post-Soviet states. The ratio of strengths to weaknesses is 1.6:1; the strengths are less than the weaknesses. Limitations are the sparseness of investigative power, reliance on agencies, and no private enforcement. Three issues have to be addressed: the effective use of the existing fines (Article 77.3 of the Competition Code), judicial training, and the correct application of the existing leniency programme (Article 78 of the Competition Code). This research has some limitations: it is research on legal works that are legally available, there are no empirical studies that can be seen in future studies.
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