Competition law: through restrictions to freedom

The author is critical of the understanding of competition law as an industry that restricts entrepreneurial activity. On the contrary, the article shows that the absence of competition law as a complex system of legal norms leads to a restriction of entrepreneurial freedom — monopolization and cartelization of the economy. The author wonders why the protection of competition required the use of legal means, and did not remain the lot of economic policy? What is the meaning of the formation of competition law as a complex system that ensures the effectiveness of the market economy? In search of an answer to these questions, the author comes to the conclusion that the law regulates antimonopoly policy, makes it understandable and predictable for all participants in civil turnover. However, the analysis of the essence of law carried out by the author allowed us to come to additional conclusions showing that competition law, by setting limits on the freedom of subjects of regulated relations, is a system of norms aimed at ensuring the freedom of market participants.