The section 2 lays down that the Marketing Practises Act covers public business enterprise where goods and services are offered on the market. To determine the applicability of the Marketing Practises Act, the crucial criterion is whether goods and services are offered in the market.
Liberalised services are public welfare services that were previously handled in the public domain. Tenders are now increasingly invited for such services outside the public sector, either in cooperation or competition with private enterprise and other public enterprise. This development is particularly noticeable in education and within the public health care services where consumers can choose freely among the different offers on market conditions.
The degree of cooperation and/or competition with other public institutions or private enterprise, and whether the tender is a private or public business is less significant. What does matter is that public business activities no longer are systematically equated with private enterprise.
Where tendered welfare services are subjected to special rules and conditions or statutory requirements in relation to the content and delivery of the services, businesses which observe these rules and requirements are, as a basis, acting in accordance with the principles of good marketing practises. This will also be the case where requirements invoked by the approving authority have to be complied with in order to become an authorised supplier of welfare services.