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An Impact of the Leniency Program and the Institution of Settlement upon the Civil Enforcement of Competition Law
Knebel, Petr ; Šmejkal, Václav (advisor) ; Svoboda, Pavel (referee)
Impact of the Leniency Program and the Institution of Settlement upon the Civil Enforcement of Competition Law Keywords: competition law, leniency program, private enforcement of competition law The purpose of this thesis is to assess the mutual interference between the private and public enforcement of competition law. In the public enforcement there is growing trend of using modern tools such as leniency programme or settlement decisions. These are based on the cooperation between competition authorities and undertakings. On the other hand such cooperation and very often disclosure of confidential information by undertakings may threaten their position in terms of potential civil law suits by consumers or business partners. It is often claimed that private and public enforcement are complementary but when it comes to these modern tools a clear conflict arises. The thesis consists of two following two chapters. First chapter describes the evolution of private enforcement of competition law within EU. From its underdeveloped beginnings ten years ago it started to attract attention. European Commission has recently published a proposal of a directive which should foster the private enforcement within EU. Second half of the first chapter describes the development of new modern tools within the public...
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Definition of a relevant market for the purposes of EU competition law
Jirovec, Jakub ; Scheu, Harald Christian (advisor) ; Šmejkal, Václav (referee)
The topic of this final thesis is the definition of the relevant market for the purpose of the EU competition law. The main purpose of this thesis is to provide the structured summary of the rules on the definition of the relevant market as these have been mostly determined by the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Commission. The case-law provided by these institutions has formed the main source of this thesis, however, the literature, in particular English, has also formed an important source. The final thesis is divided into four main chapters. The first one deals with the EU competition law in general, its position within the EU law and its significance for establishing the common market and attaining the main goals of the European integration. The first chapter also provides the sources of the EU competition law and the institutions supervising the observation thereof, i.e. the European Commission and the Court of Justice of the European Union. The second chapter of this thesis is focused on the significance of the relevant market definition within the EU competition law. This chapter provides for the particular cases requiring the relevant market definition. These cases are divided pursuant to Articles 101 and 102 TFEU and the merger control regulation. The third chapter...
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Convergence and Divergence of Antitrust in EU and USA after the year 2000
Opat, Daniel ; Šmejkal, Václav (advisor) ; Svobodová, Magdaléna (referee)
81 Summary This thesis focuses on predatory pricing in competition law of European Union and United states of America. The main goal of the thesis is to analyze the development of predatory pricing on the both sides of Atlantic and to show where the approach to predatory pricing is similar and where was used different perspective. The thesis is divided to three chapters. First part of first chapter describes predatory pricing in general. It supplies a complete view on basic elements of predatory pricing that were and some still are used to identify them. Second part of first chapter brings overview of the most important tests of costs and basic economic terminology, that is important for price tests. Last part introduces most important schools of competition law, that had the biggest impact on forming of approaches to predatory pricing. Second chapter deals with main milestones of development of predatory pricing in the United States. It brings chronological overview of laws and decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court, and analyses their importance for next judicial practice. End of this chapter summarizes development of predatory pricing in the USA on basis of foregoing findings. Third chapter similarly describes historically younger, but equally dynamic development of predatory pricing in European Union. At...
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Development of Decision-making in the Field of Public Procurement
Zapalačová, Michala ; Pítrová, Lenka (advisor) ; Šmejkal, Václav (referee) ; Rychlý, Tomáš (referee)
- DEVELOPMENT OF DECISION-MAKING IN THE FIELD OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT As the title of the dissertation suggests, its content is an analysis of decision-making in the field of public procurement, including its evolution. The dissertation is divided into three main chapters, namely the general conclusions on the legal regulation of the review of the procedure of contracting authorities, a specific analysis of decision-making practice and proposals for legal regulation de lege ferenda. In general, the dissertation focused on both national review and the supervision of public procurement by the EU institutions. The dissertant focused mainly on the description of the motion proceedings and ex officio proceedings, the imposition of corrective measures and also the legal regulation of offenses. In the chapter on the summary of general legislation, the dissertant also briefly described the role of the The Office for the Protection of Competition ("Office") and national administrative courts, as well as the role of the Constitutional Court. In the chapter on decision-making practice in the field of public procurement, which is a key part of the dissertation, the dissertation analyzed the issued decisions, especially in the period after the entry into force of the new Public Procurement Act. The described...
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New Approaches to Assessing Abuse of Dominant Position in relation to Standard Essential Patents in EU Competition Law.
Květoň, Robert ; Šmejkal, Václav (advisor) ; Vondráčková, Aneta (referee)
1 NEW APPROACHES TO ASSESSING ABUSE OF DOMINANT POSITION IN RELATION TO STANDARD-ESSENTIAL PATENTS IN EU COMPETITION LAW ABSTRACT The present thesis deals with the assessment of abuse of dominance in relation to a Standard- Essential Patents as a globally developing phenomenon of recent years. The assessment of abuse of dominance is examined in the context of EU competition law, in particular in the light of recent decision-making practice of the European Commission and the Court of Justice of the EU. This thesis examines whether European competition law is close to finding a firm standard in assessing abuses of dominance by competitors who benefit from intellectual property rights from patents on standardised technology. This firm standard is specified in two ways. The first level is whether in EU competition law the unwillingness of the owner of the Standard-Essential Patent to license such a patent is considered as an abuse of a dominant position. On the second level, it analyses under which circumstances a negatory action brought by a Standard-Essential Patent owner against a licensee in bad faith can be considered as an abuse of his dominant position. In Chapter 2, the thesis introduces key concepts related to Standard-Essential Patents and standardisation. Chapters 3 and 4 analyse the decision-making...
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Information exchange as an anticompetitive agreement: Thin ice between good and bad information exchange
Maliniak, Richard ; Šmejkal, Václav (advisor) ; Pítrová, Lenka (referee)
INFORMATION EXCHANGE AS AN ANTICOMPETITIVE AGREEMENT: THIN ICE BETWEEN GOOD AND BAD INFORMATION EXCHANGE ABSTRACT: The information exchange between competitors is one of the most controversial horizontal practices in competition law. Indeed, any exchange may have positive effects on competition as well as purely anti-competitive effects. Knowing the exact boundaries of a permissible and prohibited information exchange is absolutely crucial for entrepreneurs, as a clearly defined approach by competition authorities largely determines their own business (e.g., data aggregators and financial traders) and potentially beneficial communication such as benchmarking or information exchange enabling entrepreneurs to make better decisions on prices, demand, investment, business strategies, marketing and research & development. It is therefore absolutely crucial that the balance between good and bad information exchange is set correctly. On the one hand, there is a risk of so-called falsie positive conclusions (type I error), when behaviour that actually contributes to effective competition is condemned by the authorities as illegal. On the other hand, the price that society would pay for ignoring anti-competitive business practices, i.e., for the so-called false negative conclusions (type II error), is no less...
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Information Technology as a Challenge for EU Law Google - Abuse of Dominant Position within the EU
Kruľová, Katarína ; Šmejkal, Václav (advisor) ; Svobodová, Magdaléna (referee)
Information Technology as a Challenge for EU Law Google - Abuse of Dominant Position within the EU Abstract Google is primarily an ad-centric platform-based ecosystem and its services are daily used by millions of consumers, many without any monetary compensation. However, despite this undeniable benefit, due to its anti-competitive conduct (abuse of its dominant position) within the EEA, the European Commission had to intervene and impose fines and remedies on Google in order to restore competition on the merits and cease further consumer harm. The objective of this thesis is to establish, whether it was the conduct of Google which caused consumer harm, in qualitative terms of diminishing consumer choice and stifling innovation, or whether it was the allegedly interventionist approach of the European Commission, established through the remedies stipulated in the analysed decisions, which caused it. To reach this objective, firstly, the economic realities of multisided platforms are explained in Chapter 1. Afterwards, in Chapter 2, the specification of consumer harm in the digital markets coupled with the factors which influence consumer harm are discussed. Then, in Chapters 3 to 5 three separate analyses of three separate decisions on Google's abuse of dominant position are presented - namely - Google...
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Leniency programmes and private enforcement of cartel law
Kocí, Miloš ; Král, Richard (advisor) ; Petr, Michal (referee) ; Šmejkal, Václav (referee)
Leniency programmes and private enforcement of cartel law The available data suggests that there is an indisputable correlation between the declining attractivity of the leniency programme of the European Commission on the one hand, and the recent boom of private enforcement of cartel law on the other. It seems that in the past few years companies have become demotivated to submit leniency applications, which leads to a lower level of cartel detection and ultimately results in the weakening of both the public and private pillars of cartel law enforcement. This thesis focuses on areas that have not yet been sufficiently clarified by legislation and case-law and that are - when it comes to follow-on proceedings dealing with damages claims, held before national courts - associated with substantial risks for potential leniency applicants: (i) establishing of jurisdiction of national courts in the proceedings on claims for damages caused by anticompetitive conduct, (ii) protection of confidential information within the framework of hybrid settlements with the European Commission and in the proceedings before national courts, (iii) interpretation and application of presumptions of the existence and amount of harm caused by anticompetitive conduct and (iv) determination of the amount of harm caused by...
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Free Movement of Medical Devices
Moravová, Veronika ; Šmejkal, Václav (advisor) ; Svoboda, Pavel (referee)
1 Abstract This thesis deals with the conflict between the interest in the free movement of medical devices and the interest in the protection of health and safety. It is divided into two main parts, with the first part focusing on the pre-market phase, i.e. the phase before a medical device is placed on the market. The first part consists of two chapters describing the historical development of the regulation of medical devices and its separation from the regulation of medicinal products, as well as the way in which medical devices enter the market and what they must fulfil in order to be freely traded across the Member States. In particular, this part addresses the question of whether this separation (i.e. the move away from the 'old approach' to the 'new approach') was a step in the right direction or a 'historical mistake'. The system of CE certification of medical devices based on the participation of external auditors - Notified Bodies - is thoroughly discussed. The second part of the paper is devoted to the post-market phase (after the medical device has been placed on the market). The focus is on two 'knot problems', i.e. areas where the interest in free movement and the interest in protecting health and safety collide in practice, namely border products and parallel trade (specifically issues...
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Relevant market on multisided online platforms in the view of the European Commission and doctrine
Pavlík, Matěj ; Šmejkal, Václav (advisor) ; Říha, Michal (referee)
Relevant market on multisided online platforms in the view of the European Commission and doctrine Abstract The master thesis deals with the issue of defining the relevant market in relation to multilateral platforms. In its first part, it analyzes in detail the leading theories regarding a definition of a multisided platform is its typology. The conclusions of these analyzes then form the basis of the second part, which is the core of the work. There are described leading methods of defining the relevant market, problems with their application to multisided platforms and doctrinal proposals on how to modify these methods. This core part first deals with the dilemma of defining one market encompassing both sides of a platform or separate markets for each side of the platform and then it focuses on the issue of implementation of the SSNIP test. The individual decisions of the Commission are confronted with the comprehensive conclusions of the doctrine within the individual analyzes, and the compliance of the Commission's approach in the given decision with the doctrine is assessed here. Keywords: multisided platforms, relevant market, SSNIP test
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