Last autumn, the Czech Antitrust Office had announced that it halted its dawn raids. The decision came from – what many felt – was a surprise decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (ECHR) dated 2 October 2014 (DELTA PEKARNY a.s.). The Court held that the Czech Republic had violated Art. 8…
For a few weeks now, the Czech Antitrust Office has stopped its dawn raids. The reason for this stems from the surprising decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg (ECHR) dated 2 October 2014 (DELTA PEKARNY a.s., complaint number 97/11). In this case, the Czech Republic was held to have violated Art….
The so-called Act on Significant Market Power for the Sale of Agricultural and Food Products and the Abuse thereof (No. 359/2009 Coll.) had effect from 1 February 2010. In October 2013, internal appeal procedures ended with the first significant fine (above 900.000 EUR) handed out to Kaufland by the Czech Antitrust Office. This case gives…
Bid rigging has for a long time been a merely theoretical example of criminal liability in Czech Antitrust law without any actual cases decided. Until 2010 with the introduction of criminal liability for hard-core horizontal cartels, this was one of the very few cases of cartels where one could actually think of criminal liability of…
At the end of 2012 the Slovak Antimonopoly Office presented its future plans for public discussion. Various aspects such as the announced prioritisation of antitrust enforcement, the incentives for settlement of antitrust cases, the establishment of a division of Chief Economist, the introduction of the leniency program into law, are all fully in line with…
In November 2010, the Czech Antitrust Office handed down its first ever decision to penalise predatory pricing, dealing with the dominant operator of public passenger coach services between the two largest Czech cities, Praha and Brno. The decision to issue a fine was confirmed during administrative appeal proceedings but was reversed by the Administrative Court…
The government proposal of the new amendments to the Antitrust Act reflect practical concerns of the Czech Anitrust Office. The amendment has been passed in the first and second readings in the Lower House of the Czech Parliament in spring 2012. It may be expected to become law in the second half of this year…
