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Competition Law - Control of Concentrations between Undertakings
Luptáková, Lucia ; Horáček, Vít (advisor) ; Čech, Petr (referee)
The subject of this thesis is the control of mergers as it is regulated by Czech laws. Control of mergers is one of the cornerstones of competition law. Competition is an important attribute of the market oriented economies all over the world. Since it is not capable of self-regulation it is necessary to set limits for the behavior of the subjects that are taking part in this competition. These limits are set by competition law. The topic is divided into three chapters. The first chapter contains definition of the term competition, in the second there are described basic terms common to all areas of competition law, while at the end of this chapter there is a description of these areas. In the last chapter focus is on control of concentrations itself in the ambit of Czech law. The aim of this work is to describe merger control as it is provided by Act No. 143/2001 on Protection of Competition (ZOHS). The emphasis is on describing different forms of merger and their characteristics which must be met so that a certain transaction could be classified as a merger. Furthermore, this work provides information on conditions that must be fulfilled so that a merger, division of a company and termination of the company accompanied by transfer of assets to its partner - according to the Czech law on...
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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....
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The Legal Exceptions from the Cartel Prohibition with Regard to Crisis Cartels
Kolářová, Tereza ; Horáček, Vít (advisor) ; Čech, Petr (referee)
The Legal Exceptions from the Cartel Prohibition with Regard to Crisis Cartels English summary The purpose of the thesis is to provide a comprehensive perspective on the issue of the legal exceptions from the cartel prohibition, carry out a detailed analysis of Czech and European material regulation contained in the Article 3 paragraph 4 of the Act No. 143/2001 Coll. on Protection of Competition, as amended and in the Article 101 paragraph 3 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, focus on the application of the legal exceptions to the crisis cartels from the practical point of view, particularly on their usage by undertakings and on the approach to the crisis cartels by national competition authorities, European Commission and competition authorities from other selected countries outside Europe. The thesis is composed of four parts. The first part deals with the basic characteristics of the cartel, describes the concept of cartel, European and Czech legislation regarding cartels and competition in general and divides the cartels according to their form and relationship of participants. The second part focuses on the prohibition of anticompetitive conduct in the form of cartels, examines the merits of the cartel and highlights the consequences of breaching the prohibition. It is necessary to...
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The Protection of Economic Competition with Special Regard to Pricing
Cejpek, Jan ; Horáček, Vít (advisor) ; Eichlerová, Kateřina (referee)
Legal rules protecting the economic competition against abusive pricing practices are traditionally part of the public branch of competition law. Sensitive drafting of the law by legislator or the prudence of law interpretation by the competition authority or the court in the specific case predetermines the companies` willingness to develop dynamically on the relevant market. Legislation of the poor quality prospectively misleading decisional practice can lead in two extreme situations; on one side unlimited freedom for the dominant company, on the other side unfounded and excessive sanctions, which distract the companies` ambitions to achieve excellence. The topic - The Protection of Economic Competition with Special Regard to Pricing - is dealt in five chapters of the thesis. The aim of the paper is to analyze substantial components in each price form of abuse, solve the relevant questions of law with regard to case study concerning both the European and the Czech context and consider where the development of this law field currently results in. The methodology is mainly based on the comparative and critical research of the decisional practice. Chapter One surveys predatory pricing. It contains passage on the price-costs test, which is the major issue also for the following chapters of the study....
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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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Patent licensing and transfer of technologies from the perspective of competition law
Nemčeková, Ivana ; Horáček, Tomáš (advisor) ; Horáček, Vít (referee)
The thesis deals with the relationship between legal protection of competition on the market and legal protection of inventions, illustrated by the relations emerging in connection with licensing of patents. Text of the thesis is divided into four chapters, first two of which constitute a basis for the analysis of chosen subject-matter covered in two subsequent chapters. The topic of the thesis is explored from the viewpoint of competition law; therefore the first chapter introduces competition law foundations and legislation in the EU and the Czech Republic. Besides basic legal institutes the thesis pays attention to legislation and judicial decisions related to technological markets on which patents and their licensing constitute a common part of business strategies. Second chapter covers industrial property protection of inventions in Czech legislation, its foundations and its interconnection with such protection on the international level. The third chapter discusses technology transfer, i.e. transmission of technology information between undertakings on the market. Such information is protected mostly by patents hence it constitutes the issue of both competition law and patent law. With regard to the territorial and exclusive character of the rights resulting from a patent, there are...
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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...
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Protection of competition - block exemptions
Šafaříková, Barbora ; Horáček, Vít (advisor) ; Pelikán, Robert (referee)
PROTECTION OF COMPETITION - BLOCK EXEMPTIONS The main purpose of my thesis is to describe and analyze one aspect of a block exemption regulation for vertical agreements, namely resale price maintenance. The thesis is composed of six parts, one of them dealing with block exemptions in general and the rest of them focusing on resale price maintenance. Chapter one introduces the topic of block exemptions and explains the features of block exemptions that are common to all of them. Chapter two presents the definition of resale price maintenance and describes the difference between fixed, minimum, maximum and recommended prices. Chapter three describes economic theories, which have influence on legal treatment of resale price maintenance. The chapter is divided into three subchapters, whereas the first one explicates pro-competitive effects of resale price maintenance, the second one focuses on its anticompetitive effects and the third one summarizes the economic theories of impact of resale price maintenance. Chapter four examines the legal framework of resale price maintenance in European law. Firstly, it describes the treatment of fixed, minimum, recommended and maximum prices. Then it analyzes resale price maintenance as an object restriction and examines possible exemption under Article 101 (1) of...
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Patent, protection of originality or limitation of the competition ?
Kodad, Jiří ; Dobřichovský, Tomáš (advisor) ; Pítra, Vladimír (referee)
This master's thesis deals mainly with the interface between patent law and competition law. The main objective is to provide the reader with a complex patent law overview and explanation of basic concepts related to intellectual property law, with a pivotal focus on patent law. In order to do so, author examines how national legislation contained primarily in Act no. 527/1990 Coll., On Inventions and Rationalization Proposals, as amended works and then analyzes Paris Convention and other treaties, which still remain to be the cornerstone of the international law. After introduction to a patent protection there are examined three of the most significant patent systems in the world - European Union, United States of America and Japan and their respective approaches to patent protection. In addition to exploring limits of a patent rights protection, there are explained doctrines relating to intellectual property rights, with closer attention to patents. Another objective of the work is the analysis of patent law's interface with the competition law. As part of this examination there is paid attention mainly to the abuse of a dominant position through the exercise of patent rights, essential facilities doctrine and FRAND licensing. In conclusion, the author tries to critically assess what the current problems...
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Franchising in the Context of Competition Law
Horáčková, Iva ; Horáček, Tomáš (advisor) ; Horáček, Vít (referee)
Thesis: Franchising in the Context of Competition Law Author: Iva Horáčková English Abstract In the paper called "Franchising in the Context of Competition Law", the author deals with a topic that has not yet been elaborated in detail in Czech legal science. As in Czech law, there is no special regulation regulating franchising, there are no more detailed studies that would address the individual issues of the franchise relationship. Franchising as a form of enterprise is being often used in the Czech Republic and the numbers of franchise chains operating here are increasing every year. Therefore, it may be assumed that urgent events from practice will generate a deeper interest of legal science in franchising in the future. In the introductory explanation, the author clarifies the essence of franchising and distinguishes the franchise contract from the variety of contracts regulated by the Civil Code. However, the main topic of this work is the conflict between franchising and competition law. The work examines the aspects of both public law and private law. The European Union's regulation is taken into consideration particularly in the analysis of individual issues related to the protection of competition. The interpretation is also amended by an overview of decisions passed by the European Court of...
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