The new edition of this publication is deemed necessary to include the amendments introduced to Law 3959/2011 by Law 4886/2022 (Government Gazette 12/A/24.1.2022), which, through Articles 1-53, primarily transposed into Greek law the provisions of EU Directive 2019/1. This Directive aims to provide powers to national competition authorities for the more effective enforcement of the rules of free competition, specifically Articles 101 and 102 TFEU, with the objective of ensuring the smooth functioning of the internal market.
The amendments to Law 3959/2011 are numerous and cover various issues, the most significant of which are the following: Firstly, a new Article 1A is introduced, which refers to two unilateral practices with serious negative consequences. These are: a) inviting, coercing, or providing incentives, by any means, from one business to another to participate or contribute to a prohibited cartel between competitors, and b) the disclosure (possibly through public announcement) of a company's future intentions regarding the pricing of its products (price signalling), if this restricts effective competition within the Greek territory, is not a usual commercial practice, and has no other legitimate purpose. The prohibition of these practices does not apply if the conditions of Article 1 paragraph 3 of the law are met, as well as when the businesses involved have a total turnover of less than €50,000,000 and fewer than 250 employees.
Also significant are the amendments regarding the notification of business mergers and the conduct of preventive control, as well as changes concerning the composition, powers, and overall functioning of the Competition Commission, the fines imposed, the dispute resolution procedure, and cooperation with the national competition authorities of other EU Member States.
Article 29B introduces leniency programs for secret cartels, according to the corresponding provisions of Directive (EU) 2019/1 transposed into Greek law. The terms and conditions for exemption from fines or reduction of fines for companies included, by decision of the Competition Commission, in the relevant programs are established, provided they assist in the investigation of horizontal cartels under Article 1 of Law 3959/2011 and correspondingly Article 101 TFEU.
Finally, amendments have been made regarding limitation periods for imposing sanctions, protection during personal data processing, and the conduct of investigations. All these amendments have been incorporated into the text of Law 3959/2011, while the respective footnotes indicate the legislative provisions introducing these modifications.
At the same time, a veritable flood of amendments has also affected Law 2251/1994 on consumer protection, as we attempt to demonstrate in detail in the corresponding preamble to the articles, and these amendments have been integrated into the text of the law with the assistance of the publishing house’s collaborators, whom we warmly thank for their efforts.
Recently, to all these legislative interventions was added Law 5255/2025 (Government Gazette A 219/28.11.2025), entitled: ESTABLISHMENT AND OPERATION OF AN INDEPENDENT MARKET SURVEILLANCE AND CONSUMER PROTECTION AUTHORITY. Its provisions were included to the extent they were considered useful for the understanding and application of the consumer protection legal framework. Unfortunately, this law did not avoid the “poor” legislation that has been observed in our country in recent years. It includes many unrelated provisions, such as those concerning free competition law, which have been incorporated into the body of Law 3959/2011, as well as many others that are omitted because they cover topics outside the scope.
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