The work is related to one the form of abuse of dominance - unfair purchase or sale prices or other unlawful trading conditions - direct and indirect determination (fixing) of trading conditions or unfair price and the practical aspects of their detection and prevention. The paper presents where, what and how unfairly high prices can arise.
It examines how and to what extent the principle of double standards of justice can affect the behavior of economic agents and consumers. Accordingly, it is concluded that in a dynamic economy and industry, investments and innovations play a vital/special role in the economy and in reality. Unfortunately, it is still unclear what the appropriate competitive price indicator is and what the standard of consumer welfare is during competitive pricing. Such natural comparisons are the firm's past prices or other current prices compared to its competitors. In turn, this comparison provides a basis for fair judgment.The paper presents the role and importance of competition authorities in detecting and preventing unfairly high prices. Finally, it is concluded that the study of the facts of direct or indirect fixing of unfair purchase or sale prices or other unfair trading conditions by economic agents in a dominant position and therefore, determining the fact of operating at an unfairly high price is a very difficult process, both for competition authorities of countries with advanced international practice, and for novice competition institutions of countries like Georgia.
The complication all of this is evident, that an excessive price is not in itself unfair or wrong. Accordingly, the price needs to be assessed whether it is unfairly high, set by a dominant economic agent on the one hand excessive in itself and, on the other hand, excessive in relation to a competing company. In this regard, the paper highlights the decision of the Georgian Competition and Consumer Protection Agency (Auto Market Case) finalized on May 14, 2025, as a case law, the role and importance of the decision in the future, in the practical implementation of the country's competition policy.
