The issues of legal-criminal protection of competitive relations against misleading the consumers

URL: https://dspace.academy.police.md/the-issues-of-legal-criminal-protection-of-competitive-relations-against-misleading-the-consumers/

Data: 2024

An authentic market economy is inconceivable without respecting the constitutional principles by which the market, economic initiative, and fair competition are declared the basic factors of the economy. Connecting the national legislation to the provisions of the international acts, the local legislator adopted a series of normative acts dedicated to the regulation of competitive economic relations, and the protection of the rights and interests of consumers and economic agents engaged in entrepreneurial economic activity. The criminal legislation of the Republic of Moldova also contains a series of legal-criminal rules designed to ensure the protection and normal development of economic relations, including competitive ones, of the rights and legitimate interests of loyal competitors and consumers. The article is dedicated to an analysis of the crime of unfair competition committed by misleading consumers regarding the nature, the manufacturing method, the characteristics, the suitability for use or the quantity of the competitor’s goods, an act provided for in Art. 2461 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Moldova carried out by referring to the provisions of the legislation in the field of competition and consumer protection. The authors carried out a complex study of the researched problem, a fact that allowed them to draw certain legal conclusions regarding the quality of the analyzed provision, but also to identify proposals for improving the normative provisions. The study was based on the opinions of doctrinaires selected from the specialized literature, and the provisions of the legislation in the field, using an arsenal of scientific research methods such as historical, logical, analysis, etc.