Competition Law in Energy Sector; With an Emphasis on the Experience of the European Union and Iran

Energy law has always been important for governments. The energy market has significant issues, such as security of supply. Therefore, governments have entered this field and have regulated this market. This article attempts to examine the European Union's experience and Iranian one in answering the above questions. The EU has made efforts to achieve the objectives of competition law and energy law, which the most important is the application of liberalization packs. Studies have shown that it is possible to apply the rules of competition law in the field of energy. At the same time, the application of these rules should be suitable to the structure of such markets and inevitably there are limits to the application of the rules of competition law. In Iran, despite the establishment of Stock Exchange of Energy and the possibility of selling electricity to major consumers by private power plants, the Iranian energy market can not yet be regarded as a competitive market. Therefore, this article concludes that Iranian legislator and the competition policy makers in Iran need to apply specific rules and regulations to develop competition in our country`s energy market.