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Parallel application of national and Union competition law
Veselý, Jakub ; Šmejkal, Václav (advisor) ; Pítrová, Lenka (referee)
Parallel application of national and Union competition law The adoption of regulation No. 1/2003 opened a discussion on admissibility of parallel application of national and EU competition law regarding the ne bis in idem principle. The aim of the thesis is to map the condition of this legal topic after ten years since the process of modernisation of EU competition law on the basis of the analysis of judicial decisions and relevant legal acts including EU Charter of fundamental rights that became a part of EU primary law since Lisbon Treaty. Three different cases are to be understood under the term parallel application. The cumulative application means a case where national competition authority applies both national and EU law to punish anticompetitive behaviour in one single proceedings. The second case is the parallel application on the EU territory, where there are several proceedings held by competition authorities parallelly. These proceedings are held either concurrently or consequently. Lastly, the parallel application going beyond the EU territory is the case where an anticompetitive behaviour that has already been punished by a competition authority of a non-member state is subject of proceedings held by competition authority in EU. The thesis is divided into six chapters. The first...
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Information exchange among competitors with a focus on trade associations
Stoláriková, Monika ; Šmejkal, Václav (advisor) ; Svoboda, Pavel (referee)
The subject matter of the present diploma thesis is an exchange of information as an individual cartel behavior. It focuses on processes and operations that are performed within the frame of activities of trade associations. It should, first, be noted that in most cases, the exchange of information is an absolutely legal way how to make qualified and successful decisions on the transparent market. However, under particular conditions, it may represent a danger in the form of violation of competition law. Such violation can present particularly an exchange of information that removes uncertainty in market relationships and enables companies to foresee behavior of other competitors. The primary objective of this thesis is to complexly describe an attitude that evolved in the interpretation and application practice of the European Commission, or as the case may be of the European courts. On the base of theoretical findings and analysis, the thesis defines criteria that are applied when assessing exchange of information and determines the border between the legal and illegal exchange of information among competitors in the actual law of the European Union. So far as the content is concerned, the thesis is divided into five separate chapters. The first one provides a general definition of the exchange of...
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The status of indirect customers in lawsuits for compensation of loss caused by a breach of competition law
Moravová, Veronika ; Šmejkal, Václav (advisor) ; Scheu, Harald Christian (referee)
Resumé The thesis elaborates on the indirect purchaser's standing in disputes for damages caused by a breach of competition law. Its main purpose is to describe and, consecutively, compare the American and European approach to private enforcement of competition law or, more specifically, selected aspects of regulation relating to indirect purchasers. It should be noted that while the roots of the American model of private enforcement date back to the 19th and 20th century, Europe started to pay increased attention to this topic in the 21st century. This fact obviously raises the question of whether and to what extent was the EU inspired by the American model in forming a European approach to private competition law enforcement. For years, this issue has not been regulated on the European level at all. Nevertheless, this changed with the adoption of a landmark Directive 2014/104/EU which shed new light on European conception of private enforcement of competition law. The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter introduces the subject and aims to put the topic at hand into broader context. The private pillar of competition law enforcement, its advantages and disadvantages as well as its relation to the public pillar are described on a few pages. Subsequently, the history and current state of...
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A new role of the European Central Bank in financial supervision
Hartmann, Ivo ; Tomášek, Michal (advisor) ; Šmejkal, Václav (referee)
This Thesis shall analyze the development, resp. the actual changes made in the structure of the European financial supervision system. The analysis is done with a view to the deepening economic integration of the Member States of the European Union, whereby in the Thesis the European supranational financial supervision is perceived as a necessary result of the supranational economic cooperation. However, it is also to be borne in mind that the structure of the European financial supervision is or - at least so far - it has been very imperfect, because the Member States of the European Union were willing neither to institutionalize the cooperation in the sphere of the supranational financial supervision nor to hand over any supervision competences to the supranational level. The Thesis takes into account, in particular, the impacts of the world financial crisis and its influence on the European financial supervision structure. However, with a view to the fact that the Thesis analyzes the long-term development of the European financial supervision as well as incentives, obstructions and goals of the particular former reform steps undertaken in this field, in addition to the impacts of the world financial crises the Thesis also analyzes other decisive factors. As for other factors that - from our...
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The leniency programme in the european and czech cartel law
Tučková, Zuzana ; Svoboda, Pavel (advisor) ; Šmejkal, Václav (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to introduce the concept of the leniency programme and to describe its development and current legal regulation in the European Union and the Czech Republic, to evaluate its rules, its effectiveness and morality. The thesis also explores the relationship between leniency programme and other instruments in antitrust law enforcement. Leniency programme lies in granting full or partial immunity from sanction to the member of a cartel that reports the existence of this cartel to the antitrust authority. The thesis describes the key features of an effective leniency programme and compares these general postulates with real facts from the practise of the European Commission and the Office for the Protection of Competition. The thesis continues with pointing out the differences between European Commission notification issued in the years 1996, 2002 and 2006 and it describes how the programme works nowadays. It also focuses on the cases in which the Commission used the leniency programme. It also deals with the issue of European Competition Network and its Model Leniency Programme. Then it describes the leniency programme in the Czech Republic and the decisions by the Office for the Protection of Competition on the basis of leniency application. The comparison of Czech and...
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Arbitrability of Anti-competitive Agreements in the Law of the European Union
Pavelka, Tomáš ; Svoboda, Pavel (referee) ; Šmejkal, Václav (referee)
In the past, an Irish barrister and arbitrator James Bridgeman remarked that the arbitration of competition law is a meeting of two black arts. This perception has not changed since and yet, the adjudication of anti-competitive agreements in arbitration is an everyday event of real life. This thesis, after a brief summary of history of arbitrability of competition law, picks specific issues closely tied to current practical problems that arbitrators must face. First, whether arbitrators should consider themselves as being under obligation to raise competition issues of their own motion (ex officio) during arbitration proceedings, secondly, whether national courts of the EU Member States must automatically set arbitral awards in breach of competition rules aside and thirdly, whether arbitrators are in a good position to address complex antitrust questions properly and whether they can receive some help from the official competition authorities entrusted with primary enforcement of antitrust law. Mainly EU law will be covered here albeit with few brief excursions into particular problems of national law of the Czech Republic, to which this thesis endorses relevant solutions.
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Vertical restraints on competition in the sector of e-commerce
Krumlová, Dita ; Šmejkal, Václav (advisor) ; Svobodová, Magdaléna (referee)
This thesis deals with the selected vertical restraints on competition that occur in the sector of e-commerce, namely resale price maintenance, dual pricing and most-favoured-nation clauses. The thesis raises the research question what stance the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, and particularly national competition authorities and courts of the Federal Republic of Germany, the French Republic, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Italian Republic, the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Kingdom of Sweden take to the above-mentioned practices. The decisions of the authorities are considered in terms of their degree of strictness towards the vertical restraints in question. From a systematic point of view, the thesis is divided into eight chapters. Its subject, basic questions, aims and methods used are outlined in the introductory chapter. The second chapter, which deals with the concept of e-commerce, mainly provides the definition of the scope of the sector under consideration from a material point of view. The third chapter analyses the results of the European Commission's inquiry into the e-commerce sector, especially its conclusions on the functioning of the sector, its features and trends in this sector, particularly with regard to their...
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Current issues of consumer protection in electronic communication
Černá, Milena ; Svoboda, Pavel (advisor) ; Šmejkal, Václav (referee)
Consumer protection is an issue affecting a very broad group of citizens of the European Union. EU reflects customer protection in all its policies. I have focused on electronic communication because of my work experience in that field. In my thesis I am trying to compare my experience with valid legislation. In addition, electronic communication services are used by European consumers every day widespread through society. I have tried to follow the development of EU legislation in electronic communication sector focusing on consumer protection. This topic is very closely connected with price regulation and the whole situation on the electronic communication market. My goal is to define main problems of legislation by using case law and my knowledge from practice. In the first chapter of my thesis, I focus on general consumer protection in EU, which is applicable to all contracts concluded by consumers (unfair terms, contracts negotiated away from business premises etc.). I am pointing out issues I encountered in practice. I also compare implementation of EU legislation by EU member states. Second chapter of my work is concerned with EU regulatory framework of electronic communication valid from 2003 to 2009. I aimed at legislation related to consumer protection. I focused on main problems of the...
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The importance of the undertaking's dominant position under the Competition law of the EU and its delimitation
Šedová, Klára ; Scheu, Harald Christian (advisor) ; Šmejkal, Václav (referee)
The purpose of this master thesis is to define the term "dominant position" of an undertaking under the EU Competition Law and to find out, what circumstances are decisive in order to be able to identify existence of a dominant position. The second part of the thesis focuses on actual problems connected with the dominant undertakings, namely the standardization and the effectiveness of the interventions of competition authorities into the actions of dominant undertakings on rapidly developing IT markets. The thesis deals with the concept of dominant position and does not address particular types of abusive behaviour enumerated in Article 102 (a) - (d) TFEU. The first chapter briefly describes the system of EU Competition Law. The focus is directed on agreements distorting competition (Art. 101 TFEU), abuse of dominant position (Art. 102 TFEU) and control of concentrations between undertakings (Council Regulation No. 139/2004). The second chapter looks at the term "dominant position" of an undertaking and its delimitations. The subchapters describe definition of relevant market, market share, market power and other market conditions which shall be taken into account in the dominant position analysis. Space is further devoted to the existing dominant position on the neighbouring market and to the...
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General and individual exemptions in the provision of state aid under European law
Štěpánková, Zuzana ; Svoboda, Pavel (advisor) ; Šmejkal, Václav (referee)
General and individual exemptions in the provision of state aid under European law This diploma thesis refers to the European regulation of the provision of state aid by member states. Because of the fact that under certain circumstances state aid can affect the economic competition among concurrents both within a member state and within the internal market of the EU and thus have a significant bad influence on it, art. 107 subsection 1 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) states a general interdiction of providing state aid by the memeber states. It defines state aid as financial aid in any form (direct grant, soft loan, tax allowance, interest subsidy etc.), payed out of financial ressources belonging to the state ("state" defined in a large sense as both the central state sphere and local government sphere), which give preferential treatment to certain companies or certain production sectors and thereby affects or may affect competition, and lastly which have an influence on business between the member states (have an effect on the internal market). Of course there have to be exemptions from this general interdiction. The exemptions are regulated in art. 107 subsection 2 TFEU (general exemptions) and 3 TFEU (individual exemptions). There are three general exemptions:...
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