#JWPBlog – Refusal to grant a licence on FRAND terms may be an act of unfair competition
On 24 September 2021, the amendment to the Act of 16 April 1993 on combating unfair competition (CUC Act) came into force. The change that was introduced is that an act of unfair competition consisting in breaching the prohibition of competition restricting practices – these within the meaning of, inter alia, Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) – is now directly articulated in the provisions of this Act (in Article 15c). Although the primary objective of the new regulation is to increase the consistency of competition law provisions and to make it easier to pursue claims for breach of non-competition restrictions (so-called private enforcement), it is worth emphasising that it may also apply to patent infringement cases, in particular those within the ICT sector.
