A livre concorrência como princípio da ordem econômica

Abstract

The present work has the main scope to carry out a legal study of the constitutional principle of free competition, which is inscribed throughout Article 170 of the Federal Constitution of 1988, more precisely in its subsection 'IV'. It is located in the chapter on the "General Principles of Economic Activity", of the section of the Constitution concerning the "Economic and Financial Order". The approach used, however, is not restricted exclusively to aspects related to Constitutional Law, but mainly, to what concerns the branch of legal science called Economic Law. The appreciation of the ideology that bases the principle in comment and its reflections on the economic dictates, as well as the meaning in which the said precept is to be understood, its function and the effects of its application correspond to the main points explored in this work. The importance of the principle is also emphasized, insofar as the need for its use in economic relations is evidenced, especially in view of the evil effects of business concentration, whose most obvious consequence corresponds to the reckless concentration of economic power. It is precisely the ill-fated abuse of economic power (consecration of that concentration) that the principle aims to avoid, combating, more specifically, the various losses to society caused by possible abuse. The protectionist function of the principle of free competition, as well as its link with the other principles that serve the structure in which the legal order is built, added to the modalities of defense and promotion of free competition and to the work of the institutionally created organs with this search content.