COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TORT LIABILITY FOR UNLAWFUL COMPETITION

In the case of abuse of right of freedom of trade, intentional fault or negligence, resort to unlawful means and act contrary to professional ethics and in general, fulfillment of conditions of compensation of loss according to governing rules in legal systems, commercial rivals have tortious liability within the framework of traditional principles of tort law. Nowadays, day by day, cases of tort liability for breach of regulations of competition law is increasing. In principle, regarding the public nature of competition law, breach of regulations of this branch of law has penal or administrative sanction, but in many situations, private sanctions is much more efficient regarding aims of competition law. In this article, tort liability for unlawful competition has been studied in two mentioned fields and Iranian law has been compared with French, England, Germany, U.S.A and European Union law. The results of this article indicate that the nature of obligation of compensation in these two fields is different from each other. In addition, application of specific rules for proof and evaluation of loss, such as punitive damages and presumption of loss, has been proposed.