Výroční zpráva ÚOHS za rok 2024

Annual Report of the Office for the Protection of Competition for 2024

The annual report summarizes the key activities of the Office for the Protection of Competition in the areas of competition protection, supervision of public procurement, control of significant market power, and other activities for the year 2024.

The report provides an overview of the Office's decision-making activities, where in the area of prohibited agreements, the Office issued a total of 11 decisions, leading to fines exceeding 340 million CZK. Significant sanctions were imposed mainly for vertical price agreements in the sectors of domestic appliances and pet food.

In the area of merger control, the Office issued 65 decisions. Although none of the proposed mergers were prohibited, in two cases the Office approved the mergers only under the condition of fulfilling behavioral commitments sufficient to ensure effective competition in the affected markets.

The annual report also includes an evaluation of the Office's legislative initiatives (especially the amendment to the Competition Protection Act introducing the so-called new competition tool and call-in model). For more information regarding the call-in model, we refer you to our previous Tax alert on this topic. The so-called new competition tool is intended to allow the Office to intervene in concentrated markets where competition is disrupted, even without the presence of anti-competitive conduct, through sector inquiries and the establishment of remedial measures such as the introduction of transparent standards, provision of access to infrastructure, disclosure of information, or adjustment of contractual arrangements.

The full text of the Office’s annual report can be found HERE.

If you are interested in further information, please contact the authors of the article or other members of the EY team you collaborate with.

Authors:

František Schirl

Vladimír Petráček

Johanna Roháčková