Background:
The principle of free competition, the corollary to the freedom of trade and industry, has a necessary limit in unfair competition. Those who engage in it are tortuously liable in common law.
Unfair competition is at the confluence of special rights (intellectual property, competition law) and the common law of obligations and can be impacted by European Community law (sanctions for unfair trade practices). In such cases, its very objective remains uncertain, oscillating between compensating for a loss and sanctioning competitive misconduct.
The objective of this course is to sketch a complete updated panorama of unfair competition in its various manifestations (imitation, confusion, disparagement, etc.), especially parasitic practices (use of the reputation of another without this necessarily seeking to create confusion), both in judicial proceedings and in the determination of fault and of the loss to be compensated.