The 'Cut and Paste' of Article 82 of the EC Treaty in Israel: Conditions for a Successful Transplant

A bit over a decade ago the Israeli competition law was amended. The legislator simply 'cut and paste' Article 82 of the Treaty of Rome, which prohibits the abuse of dominance, into the Israeli Competition Act. The question this article addresses is whether the copying of Article 82 has been a Trojan horse - in that its adoption into brought in doctrines and legal rules which did not serve well Israeli competition law, or whether it served as a racing horse, in that it move forward the Israeli law of abuse. The answer, I suggest, is a hybrid horse. Nonetheless, a few years of exercise on the local racetrack have strengthened its racing abilities by acclimatizing it to the special conditions of the new legal environment. The article uses the Israeli experience as a case study and reaches some interesting conclusions with regard to the conditions necessary for a successful legal transplant.