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Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic Annual Report 2001
5
Amendment to the Act on Protection of Competition
An amendment to the Act on Protection of Competition started to be drafted in 2001 and is expected to
come into force on 1 June 2002. This amendment is required to further harmonisation of the law of the
Slovak Republic with the law of European Union in the area of protection of competition.
The main purpose of the amendment is to transpose block exemptions for certain categories of
agreements restricting competition into the Slovak legal system, particularly the following block
exemptions:
! block exemption for agreements restricting competition of vertical nature,
! block exemption for agreements restricting competition in the area of distribution and
maintaining of motor vehicles,
! block exemption for agreements restricting competition in technology provision,
! block exemption for agreements restricting competition in the area of specialization,
!
block exemption for research and development agreements restricting competition,
!
block exemption for agreements restricting competition in the insurance sector,
!
block exemption for agreements restricting competition in the area of maritime transport
The block exemptions will constitute a legal adjustment on the basis of which certain agreements
restricting competition, subject to meeting thoroughly defined conditions will be automatically exempted
from the ban without any obligation to notify them to the Office. The block exemptions will bring the
undertakings a peace comparable to that of an individual exemption granted by the Office.
The amendment will also include adjustment on the application of simplified proceedings in the
assessment of concentrations having negligible impact on the market. This legal adjustment will
contribute to speeding up the proceedings at the Office as it allows to issue, in a reduced period of
time, a simplified decision on concentrations where it is apparent that they would not restrict
competition.
ENFORCEMENT OF THE ACT ON PROTECTION OF COMPETITION
Agreements restricting competition
The Office considers conclusion and existence of agreements restricting competition to be one of the
most serious form of competition restriction. In praxis, this conclusion could be realised in the form of
horizontal agreements, it means among undertakings which operate on the same level of market or in
the form of vertical agreements concluded by the undertakings active on the different levels of
production and distribution chain. Also the so called concerted practice is an agreement restricting
competition, in which the undertakings purposely coordinate their behaviour resulting in competition
restriction, regardless whether they have met each other or not. Act on Protection of Competition
provides demonstrative list of prohibited arrangements, which the agreements cannot contain.
Hard cartel agreements have the most significant impact on competition, but in praxis they are very
difficult to prove. Undertakings concluding such an agreement have the eminent interest to conceal it
as they have the certain benefit from the agreement, coming out from the competition elimination and
from the following increase of prices for consumers. Already mentioned so called leniency programme
has been included into the act in order to disclose as many as possible of these dangerous
agreements.
This programme is based on the fact that the Office will not impose any fines to an undertaking, which
meets the explicitly defined conditions or impose a fine significantly lower than it would impose, if the
undertaking did not meet the said conditions.
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