Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)

There is also potential for an anomalous position to arise whereby self-employed persons could be exempt under Irish competition law yet such persons could be in breach of Article 81 of the treaty. The preamble to the 2002 Act states that it is "An Act to make new provision, by analogy with Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty..." The current wording of section 4 of the Competition Act is taken from the wording in Article 81(1) of the treaty. Section 6 of the Act creates an offence for breach of both section 4 of the Act and Article 81 of the treaty, while section 8 sets out the penalties for a breach of both section 4 and Article 81.

The Act also anticipated Council Regulation 1 of 2003 which made European competition rules directly applicable in member states. Article 3 of that regulation requires the national competition authorities and national courts to apply Article 81 when they apply national competition law to agreements which may affect trade between member states.

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