---
title: "Unfair Trade Practices"
url: "https://legal.ge/en/service/environmental-and-energy-law-en/unfair-trade-practices-en"
field: "Environmental & Energy Law"
description: "Article 11-3 bans unfair competition in Georgia: fine up to 1% of prior-year turnover, up to 3% on repetition. Legal.ge."
reviewed: "2026-02-13"
updated: "2026-10-14"
publisher: "legal.ge"
---

# Unfair Trade Practices

> Source: legal.ge, https://legal.ge/en/service/environmental-and-energy-law-en/unfair-trade-practices-en

## Unfair Commercial Practices in Georgian Law

In Georgia, unfair commercial conduct is primarily an institution of competition law. The governing framework is the Georgian Law on Competition, whose relevant provision directly prohibits unfair acts by economic agents. To understand the boundaries of this page, one point must be stated plainly at the outset: a separate consumer-protection regime governing business-to-consumer unfair trading practices is not part of the legal basis assembled here, and this page is therefore grounded in the competition-law prohibition. Likewise, the European Union directive on unfair commercial practices is a foreign legal instrument with no application to Georgia — it is mentioned here only as comparative context, never as an operative norm.

The definitions article of the law explains the key terms on which the prohibition rests. An economic agent is a natural person, legal person, other association or union carrying out economic activity, regardless of residency or legal form. A competitor is an economic agent actual or potential on the relevant market. The relevant market is the sphere of circulation of goods or services on a defined territory, and it may cover the whole territory of Georgia, a part of it, or a part of it together with a part of another country's territory. The same article defines the applicant and the complainant — the two categories of persons entitled to approach the agency.

The full text is available on legal.ge after signing in: https://legal.ge/en/service/environmental-and-energy-law-en/unfair-trade-practices-en

### What is unfair competition under Georgian law?

Under the Law on Competition, it is an act of an economic agent that contradicts the norms of business ethics and infringes the interests of a competitor and of consumers. Such competition is inadmissible, and its violation is sanctioned by the agency with a fine tied to turnover.

### Which acts count as unfair competition?

The law gives examples: spreading misleading information including through false or unreliable advertising, concealing the true purpose of a deal, discrediting a competitor, appropriating the packaging or appearance of goods, obtaining commercial secrets without consent, bribery, and calls for boycott.

### Who can apply to the Competition Agency?

The law distinguishes an applicant, who has information or evidence of a violation but suffers no direct property damage and is not a party, from a complainant, an economic agent suffering direct property damage, who is a party, submits evidence and bears the burden of proof.

### What fine does a violator face?

Upon confirmation of a violation, the fine must not exceed 1 % of the violator's aggregate turnover of the previous financial year before the decision; if the violation is repeated or its legal basis is not eliminated, the ceiling rises to 3 %. The fine must be paid within 1 month.