|
|
Exceptions to the cartel ban
Křížková, Michaela ; Horáček, Vít (advisor) ; Eichlerová, Kateřina (referee)
Exemptions from cartel prohibition English summary On 16 of December 2002 the European Commission adopted a Regulation Nr. 1/2003 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty which was revolutionary as it has totally changed the way of obtaining a legal exemption from a prohibition of cartel agreements contained in an article 81 section 1 of the EC Treaty. Before the Regulation the Commission granted its approval for exempting certain types of agreements which fulfilled the conditions under the article 81 section 3 of the EC Treaty, i.e. if they contribute to improving the production or distribution of goods or to promoting technical or economic progress, while allowing consumers a fair share of the resulting benefit, and which does not impose on the undertakings concerned restrictions which are not indispensable to the attainment of these objectives and afford such undertakings the possibility of eliminating competition in respect of a substantive part of the products in question. A weak point of such a regulation was that the Commission was permanently overloaded by numerous demands for declaration of inapplicability of a cartel prohibition. Therefore there was strong need to modify the system in order to make the work of the Commission more effective....
|
|
|
A comparison of the control over horizontal mergers in the EU and the USA with a special focus on advantages of a merger and the protection of an insolvent company
Svoboda, Karel ; Svoboda, Pavel (advisor) ; Zemánek, Jiří (referee)
A comparison of merger control in the EU and the USA focusing on efficiency defence and failing company defence This paper compares the interpretation of efficiency defence and failing company defence in horizontal mergers in the EU and the USA. The arguments for each were first introduced in the decisional practice of US antitrust authorities and then included in the Merger Guidelines. Over the years both types of defence have been used in US antitrust law. Harsh criticism of the prohibition of several mergers at the beginning of the 21st century led to the reform of European merger control. Among other things, the reforms introduced efficiency defence and failing company defence. Given the complexity of competition law and the many factors that influence it, several background issues must first be analyzed, such as basic economic theories of competition law, the economic grounds for mergers and the political background. After comparing the relevant written law, the case law regarding efficiency defence and failing company defence in both jurisdictions is described. In this way the developments of the doctrines are clearly visible. Subsequently the current situation is described by comparing the requirements set by written law and their interpretation by decisional practice. It was found that the...
|
|
|
Criminal liability for breaching Competition Law
Najmanová, Nikola ; Boháček, Martin (advisor) ; Vozáb, Jakub (referee)
The aim of this paper is to analyze criminal liability for breaching competition law. The main part of this thesis is dedicated to criminalization of cartels in the Czech Republic analysis which uses comparison to other jurisdictions such as USA and EU because it is trying to answer the question whether criminalization of uncompetitive conduct in the Czech Republic has a potential to become an efficient mechanism for fighting cartels in particular. And this criminalization has a positive effect on other competition law enforcement systems. The first chapter is dedicated to the explanation of basic terms related to the competition and competition law. Second chapter explains what cartel agreements are and what types of public and private enforcement exists to fight them. Also it points out to the trend of cartel criminalization. Third chapter analyzes cartel enforcement in USA as a model country in this area of law. Chapter number four looks into the EU legislation since it applies to the Czech Republic. Also it looks at individual member states steps towards fighting cartels. The last chapter dealing with cartel agreement analyzes the Czech Republic's legislation. This analysis is supported by previously acquired knowledge of US and EU legislations which is used to make comparisons. Final chapter continues with the analysis of Czech legislation however this time with unfair competition in order to provide a complete picture of criminal liability when breaching the competition law.
|
|
|
Review of the application of Article 82 - in search of a sound economics
Pražský, Ondřej ; Stuna, Stanislav (advisor) ; Boháček, Martin (referee) ; Zemplinerová, Alena (referee) ; Munková, Jindřiška (referee)
European competition law originated after the end of the Second World War as a part of treaties instrumental to the European integration process and it evolved through secondary law and jurisprudence of the European Court of Justice from an international trade provision into its modern and truly general form. European Commission in it its endeavor to modernize competition law presents a review of the application of Article 82. The goal of the review is to base the policy on a sound economic framework, to aim on effects of abusive conduct rather than on its form and finally to focus mainly on the most important competition problems. This thesis advocates the necessity of an economic analysis while assessing the possible abuse of dominant position in concrete cases and therefore welcomes proclaimed goals of the review. Conversely it criticizes the insufficient fulfillment of these goals, which is in our view, mainly due to misunderstanding of the operation of market mechanism. Economics is in its most generalized form a complex science of purposeful human action. It is therefore not a toolbox, from which one could ad hoc take models or theories in order to assess the abuse of dominant position in real-world cases. This naive approach often leads authorities to make unsound or paradox rulings. We demonstrate the indispensability of correctly understanding the market mechanism in referencing the famous Microsoft case. Industries of the New Economy are characterized by strong network effects and a high portion of fixed costs, which makes the firms often compete "for the market" instead of "on the market". The corollary high market share is not in our view a manifestation of a monopoly position, which could be exploited using monopoly price. Modern economy explains how potential competition forces these highly efficient firms to continuously invest into new technologies and how it pushes down the price of final products. On the other hand, recourse to ad hoc doctrines or non adequate economic models may lead to erroneous assessment of abuse of dominant position.
|
|
|
Misleading advertising and FMCG
Teprtová, Irena ; Boháček, Martin (advisor) ; Postler, Milan (referee)
The theoretical part is divided into four chapters. The first chapter deals with competition, the second chapter is about Czech law advertising regulation and about Community law. The third chapter describes misleading advertising and the fourth chapter deals with FMCG. The practical part analyzes current ads. The first chapter describes the method of analysis. The second chapter deals with use of misleading and the third chapter analyzes misuse of truthful information in advertising. The last chapter focuses on the advertising hyperbole.
|
|
|
Competition Law in Russian Federation
Levý, Jan ; Boháček, Martin (advisor) ; Vozáb, Jakub (referee)
The thesis deals with competition law (law on unlawful restriction of competition as well as unfair competition) in Russian Federation, it particularly compares Russian and Czech law. Its content is first a brief introduction to Russian competition law, sources of law etc. Next chapters are devoted to basic concepts of this branch of law. Law about abuse of dominant position, cartels, control of mergers, and unfair competition has been analysed. The last chapter deals with the supervision in the disucussed area.
|
|
|
Problems of advertising in business and ecomonic competition within the frame of European Union
KUPSOVÁ, Jitka
Objectives of this thesis is concentrate on problems of advertising in business and economic competition within the frame of EU. Thesis analyse advertising as such. In this thesis, there is a description of notion advertising, history of advertising, functions, objectives{\dots}etc. Consenquently there is a description of medium for advertising. In Czech republic, the advertising is legally regulate by public law and by private law. At the same time, it use also nonlegal instruments for regulation. It is self-regulation by the help of Ethics code. Ethics code is published by RPR (Rada pro reklamu). It watch over ethics and mind of advertising. Unfair competition is behaviour in economic competition, which is in violation of good manners and is qualified to evocate injury of others competitors or consumer. Unfair competition is for example false advertising, embracery, impeachment{\dots}etc. Economic competition is regulate and controlled by ÚOHS (Úřad pro ochranu hospodářské soutěže). It create condititons for subvention and protection. Competition law is used in case of violation against conditions of economic competition. It is for example abuse of dominant position, association of competitors or forbidden agreements. Within the frame of law, it exists sanctions for protections againts infringement of economic competition and unfair competititon. Concerning advertising in the European Union, it is analogous to advertising in Czech republic. For regulation, there is many EC directives regulating advertising.
|
|
|
Competition law in the Czech Republic and EU with a view to mergers and acquisitions
Karasz, Jiří ; Pavlok, Jan (advisor) ; Boháček, Martin (referee)
This diploma thesis summarizes the development of protection of competition in the Czech Republic in the comparison with EU Competition Law. I focused on undertaking concentrations, one of the three fundamental pillars of a competition protection. The description of last tendencies in the EU law explains its current values that are typical for Czech law system nowadays. First two chapters include analysis of harmonization of Czech and European competition law in the area of control of concentrations between undertakings. I tried to find solution of problems joined with the harmonization based on the opinions of Czech law specialist in the next chapter. The closing part of the thesis focuses on the last novelization in September 2009. There are also critique and recommendation included in the last chapter.
|
|
|
Legal Matters of the Electronic Communications Market
Šenoltová, Zuzana ; Boháček, Martin (advisor) ; Sedláček, Václav (referee)
The graduation thesis "Legal Matters of the Electronic Communications Market" maps the complete system of the economic, historic and particularly the legal consequences of the contemporary conception of the regulation of the e-communications market. It is focused primarily on the relationship between the ex ante regulation and the ex post remedy of the market failure, it monitors the development of how the public interest in providing these services has developed with the reference to the universal service, and it provides a detailed analysis of the new European regulatory framework of the e-communications market that has been accepted in November 2009.
|
|
|
Significant economic and legal aspects in the protection of competition in the EU and the USA
Zavřel, Vladimír ; Karpová, Eva (advisor) ; Němcová, Ingeborg (referee)
The purpose of the present thesis is to analyse the relationship between competition law and economics on the example of the USA and the EU. In the first chapter is mentioned the context that led to the issuance of antitrust laws in the USA, the EU and other countries, as well as the most significant economic theories which had a major influence on the application of competition law. This is followed by the description of the institutional framework of competition law in the USA and the EU, their respective primary sources of law, including non-legislative documents. The second chapter analyses the most significant anticompetitive conducts for both antitrust areas (i.e. anticompetitive agreements and unilateral conducts), with a special attention to the most harmful anticompetitive conducts (e.g. horizontal price fixing) and to relatively new and dynamically developing areas of antitrust law (e.g. refusal to deal related to intellectual property). Each selected conduct is introduced by the description of potential anticompetitive effects of the conduct and it is followed by relevant significant American and European precedents. The last sub-chapters analyse non-legislative documents issued by the FTC, DoJ and EC which enable to educe their current general approach to mergers.
|
guest ::
