ÚOHS poprvé uložil pokutu podle nových pravidel významné tržní síly

Office for the Protection of Competition imposed a fine under the new significant market power rules

As we have informed you in the past, on 1 January 2023 a major amendment to the Act No. 395/2009 Coll., on Significant Market Power and Unfair Commercial Practices in the Sale of Agricultural and Food Products (the "Act"), came into force. From that date, the relevant entities had a twelve-month period to bring their contracts and practices into line with the Act.

A few days ago, the Office for the Protection of Competition (the "Office") announced that it had imposed a fine of CZK 456,000 on Heineken Česká republika, a.s., for violating the Act. The reason for this was the fact that Heineken had repeatedly applied a 90-day payment period for the purchase price to two of its suppliers, although the maximum payment period allowed under the Act is 30 days.

The amount of the fine imposed corresponds to the minority of the offence committed and to Heineken's active cooperation during the administrative proceedings. However, the aggravating circumstance was the simultaneous commission of two offences. The fine has been reduced by 20% to the final amount indicated above, subject to compliance with the conditions for settlement.

Interestingly, the fine imposed on Heineken is the first ever sanction against a food producer. Until this amendment to the Act, only retail chains could be sanctioned for unfair commercial practices.

Currently, the Office is conducting seven other administrative proceedings against purchasers of food and agricultural products, mainly retail chains and wholesalers. Further cases will be launched gradually on the basis of the evaluation of more than two dozen sectoral investigations. In these, the Office is verifying to what extent purchasers comply with the obligations introduced by the amendment to the Act.

We are monitoring further developments in this matter and will keep you informed. If you would like further information, please contact the authors of this article or other members of the EY team with whom you work.

Authors:

Jan Turek

Magdalena Hamáčková