Relectura de la Ley 20/2013, de 9 de diciembre, desde la perspectiva del recurso para la garantía de la unidad de mercado

Abstract

In 2017, the Constitutional Court annulled the principle of national effectiveness foreseen in the LGUM. With this, one might think, mistakenly, that the main purpose of the Law has virtually disappeared. This study disagrees with such interpretation. The Law is based on two main axes. One of them (the annulled one) aimed to achieve the unity of the Spanish market by granting extraterritorial effectiveness to the decisions of the different competent authorities (essence of the principle of national efficiency). The other major axis (subsisting) is the limitation of the powers of intervention of the Spanish public authorities in economic activities through basic State rules. An analysis of the practical application of the LGUM by the CNMC through the judicial appeal for the guarantee of the market unity, shows that the subsisting part of the LGUM is, precisely, the one that had been receiving the most attention. Thus, the practical effectiveness of the Law has remained almost intact, for the purposes of the abovementioned appeal, despite the annulment pronouncement.