1 second annual conference on competition enforcement in the recently acceded member states brno 23...
TRANSCRIPT
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Second Annual Conference on Competition Enforcement in the Recently Acceded Member States
Brno 23 April 2010
Development of Competition
Enforcement in the Czech RepublicImportant Decisions
Robert NerudaVice Chairman
Office for the Protection of Competition, the Czech Republic
2
Overview
• Background• Cartels• Abuse of dominance• Mergers• Courts• Conclusions
3
Background
• Organisational changes– structure of the Competition Section– Chief economist department– Cartel department– Devil's advocates' panel
• Policy changes– willingness to enforce signaled– more economic approach– Prioritisation
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First instance decisions
3
0
3
4
1
5
11
4
15
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
2007 2008 2009
Agreements
Abuses
Total
5
Cases Opened
54
9
5
3
89
0
9
15
1
16
2 13
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Agreements
Abuses
Total
6
Overview
• Background• Cartels• Abuse of dominance• Mergers• Courts• Conclusions
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Cartels
Cases
• RPM campaign provisionally finished• Export bans
– Sokolovská uhelná (lignite)– KMV (soft drinks, settled)
• Pending– bid rigging (evidence submitted by the police)
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Cartels
Other important developments
• Leniency program – rules on access to leniency file– seeking a balance between LP and settlements– joint application
• Self incrimination rules
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Overview
• Background• Cartels• Abuse of dominance• Mergers• Courts• Conclusions
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Abuse of dominance
Development
• Focus on exclusionary conduct• Pricing (margin squeeze, predatory pricing)• But still some room for investigation of
exploitation!– RWE Transgas
• excessive advances for gas supply • compensation of damages in settlement procedure
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Abuse of dominance
Cases
• MUS (lignite)– complaint on refusal to supply and discriminatory (excessive)
pricing– mutual business dependence between MUS and heating plant– no dominance found despite very high market share (> 60 %)
• countervailing buyer power (dominance on purchase market)
• vertical integration of competitors
– case closed …• … with controversy
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Abuse of dominance
Commitments
• RWE Transgas– access to gas storage facilities– parallel investigations by the Office and the regulator
(ERU)– commitments outside formal proceeding
• making 20 % of storage capacity available to competitors• shortening of capacity reservation by 12 years
– lessons learned
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Overview
• Background• Cartels• Abuse of dominanceAbuse of dominance• Mergers• Courts• Conclusions
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Mergers• Crisis? What?
• Scarce interventions– but structural commitments only (Agrofert/Agropol)– painful revision of commitments
• Concept of undertaking– definition of economic activity – health insurance is not economic activity (HZP/ZP Agel)
• Are some mergers abandoned because of the threat of MEA?
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Overview
• Background• Cartels• Abuse of dominanceAbuse of dominance• Mergers• Courts• Conclusions
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Courts
• Supreme Administrative Court– Petrol stations cartel
• succession of liability - a Pyrrhic victory?• automatic legal or economic continuity not available in the
Czech law– except for cases where transformation of company was
motivated (at least partially) by the intention to evade consequences of violation of competition law
• fully applicable for 2001, but situation might have changed after 1 May 2004 (1 September 2009)
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Overview
• Background• Cartels• Abuse of dominanceAbuse of dominance• Mergers• Courts• Conclusions
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Conclusions
• Significant change of competition policy– from formal to effect based approach
• Due process in cartel investigation• Balance between leniency program and settlements• Mergers as usually
