ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the development of competitive markets in Polish industry during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the critical years of Poland's transition from Soviet-type socialism to capitalism. The focus of competition policy has been on preventing anti-competitive behavior, especially by dominant firms, and on promoting market competition in general, rather than on effecting changes in industrial structures. By 1992, however-the third year since the collapse of Soviet-type socialism in Poland-other trends, linked to Polish firms' need to increase competitiveness on world markets by capturing economies of scale and scope, had probably become increasingly important. While Polish competition law emphasizes prohibiting price fixing and other anti-competitive horizontal agreements, this prohibition is not subject to a per se standard. Perhaps the Antimonopoly Office's most important function has been the advocacy of liberal, pro-competitive solutions to economic policy problems during the Polish transition.
