Daniel Becker, Jun 15, 2009
Till the end of 2004, prices of products and services had been regulated, in Luxembourg, by an office on price control, a department of the Ministry of the Economy. However, with European Regulation (EC) No 1/2003, which was enacted on December 16, 2002, competition enforcement and policy was allocated to the national EU Member States. At that time, Luxembourg was the sole European country where modern competition law, as such, did not exist. The former Act on Restrictive Business Practices dated June 17, 1970 had to be modernized. The Luxembourg competition law was adopted on May 17, 2004 and has been operational since November 2004 when two national competition authorities were created: the Competition Inspectorate and the Competition Council. Since then, prices of products and services have been almost exclusively determined by the free interplay of market supply and demand. Maximum prices are only fixed as regards petroleum products, taxi services, and pharmaceutical products, through contract programs between the Ministry of the Economy and economic market operators, or through regulation by the Grand-Duke.
