| Abstract [eng] |
The European Union Competition Policy is defined as one of the most important mechanisms of the European Union (EU) internal market. It not only covers the political aspects, but the economic ones as well. The entire EU has established the Competition Policy as a tool to protect and improve the national economy. Its main features are the abuse of dominant positions, state aid, cartels, and mergers. Competition authorities face challenges to maintain a fair, competitive internal market and to protect equal rights. However, not all companies are willing to follow all of the rules that are established in the EU Competition Policy. Cartels are recognised as secret agreements that violate the essential principles of the Competition Law. It is crucial to detect cartels in the market, which, unfortunately, is not easy to do. This master’s thesis determines one of the forbidden features of the Competition Policy: cartels. It aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the creation of cartels and its effects on the economy of Lithuania. Despite the EU developing the Competition Policy for a very long time, it underwent improvements until it was successfully implemented. However, there are still some uncertainties as to how national economies implement it. Lithuania is a comparatively small country with a relatively low culture of fair competitiveness in the market. It leads to the thesis problem statement, which concerns the ways how cartels affect Lithuania’s economy. The main aim of this thesis is to measure the effects of cartels on the Lithuania’s economy. It is questionable whether the Competition Council of the Republic of Lithuania implements successful countermeasures against the behaviour of anticompetitive enterprises. This aim actuality includes the aspect that the economy of each country does not stand stagnated in one point, but rather moves forward. What is more, companies are looking for new ways to increase profit and cartels are recognised as a tool to achieve this. Cartels are always different and bring various results. There are many theoretical studies on cartels, but just a few of them implement economic analysis to measure the actual impact of cartels on the national economy. |
