Introduction of Speakers and their Presentations
Petr Mlsna
Chairman, Czech NCA
Petr Mlsna is the Chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition since 2 December 2020. Starting from 2003, he held a number of positions at the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic and at the Government Legislative Council. In late 2012 and early 2013, he held the position of Minister without portfolio and the Chairman of the Government Legislation Council. Subsequently, he was the acting Deputy Minister for Justice and for Education, Youth and Sports. Since 2015, until his appointment as the Chairman of the Office, he was the acting Deputy Minister responsible for the Section of Legislative, State Administration and Regional Administration of the Ministry of Interior.
SESSION I: WHAT IS NEW IN COMPETITION LAW AND POLICY
Kamil Nejezchleb
Vice-Chairman, Czech NCA
Kamil Nejezchleb is the acting Vice-chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition and is responsible for the Competition Division since 1 April 2021. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in Brno and the Faculty of Business and Management of the Brno University of Technology in 2007. He completed the doctoral program at the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in 2019. His dissertation focused on the modernization of legal instruments for detection of cartel agreements and he also implemented several specific projects which focused on different aspects of competition law throughout his doctoral studies. In November 2008, he joined the Office and since then has served in several positions. For the last five years, he worked as the Head of the Unit of Cartels and the Deputy Director of the Department of Cartels. He also taught commercial and trade law at the Public Administration Academy in Brno. He has been engaged in long-term cooperation with the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Economics and Administration of Masaryk University where he gives specialized lectures on competition law and economics. He has gained extensive experience with the application of competition law abroad. He participated in a six-month internship at the European Commission - DG COMP and is active within the European Competition Network and International Competition Network. He also collaborated in the creation of the methodology for the leniency and settlement programmes and the preparation of recent amendments of the Act on the Protection of Competition. He engaged in training of contracting authorities on the issue of bid rigging on a long-term basis. He published several expert articles on competition. He is the co-author of the publication Economic Methods in Competition Law.
presentation (together for the Session I) 1.4 MB
Juraj Beňa
Chairman, Slovak NCA
Juraj Beňa became the Chairman of the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic on 1 March 2023 after his appointment by the President of the Slovak Republic. He joined the Office from the telecommunications company Orange Slovensko, where he worked as a legal advisor in the field of regulation and competition law (10/2016 – 2/2023). Prior to that, he worked at the Cartels Department of the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic (1/2013 – 9/2016) and at law firms (9/2008 – 1/2013). He also gained experience in the field of competition law in an international environment, when he attended a traineeship as a national expert at the European Commission, Directorate General for Competition, and in this area, he also worked as a lecturer and academic. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at Comenius University in Bratislava (9/2003 – 6/2008, Master's degree) and completed his education in international and European law at the University of Amsterdam (9/2009 – 9/2010, LL.M. degree).
presentation (together for the Session I) 1.4 MB
Daniel Mańkowski
Vice-Chairman, Polish NCA
Daniel Mańkowski is the Vice-President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.
Doctor of law, legal advisor, legislator with over ten years of professional experience. A graduate of the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw and the Legislative Application of the Government Legislation Center.
Daniel has been associated with public administration for many years. Since 2018, Director of the Legal Department of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, where he supervised proceedings and court cases conducted by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection and coordinated the legislative activities of the Office. He co-created, among others: amendments to the Act on Competition and Consumer Protection, the Act on Counteracting Unfair Use of Contractual Advantage in Trading in Agricultural and Food Products and the Act on Counteracting Excessive Delays in Commercial Transactions. He was awarded the Honorary Badge of the Prime Minister for his services to legislation.
He actively represented the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection at the international level. He participated in a number of conferences, projects and official meetings with competition and consumer protection authorities, including: from Spain, Portugal, France, Czech Republic, Hungary, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Azerbaijan.
Academic lecturer honored by the Rector of the University of Warsaw. Active researcher in the field of competition and consumer protection legislation and law, cooperating with several universities.
presentation (together for the Session I) 1.4 MB
Andrej Matvoz
Chairman, Slovenian NCA
Andrej Matvoz graduated from the Faculty of Law in Maribor. He comes from an entrepreneurial family, so he started gathering work experience and building up his work ethics from young age. He started his career as a lawyer in the small municipality of Hoče-Slivnica, and continued later as a lawyer at the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology as a custodian of contracts within the EU public tenders for co-financing companies. During this time, he also started his own entrepreneurial path, where he gained experience in the field of law as an independent legal advisor. He began his term as director of the Public Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for the Protection of Competition in 2015, where he headed the agency until July 2017 as acting director, and from 1 July 2017 as director with a full five-year term. His first term ended in July 2022. At the beginning of the 2023, he got appointed head for another 5-year period. In recent years, as an expert in the field of competition law, he regularly attends public consultations, workshops and seminars in the specific field, both at home and abroad. During his mandate as director of AVK, among other regular activities of the agency, he also strengthened and actively participated in the field of Public Procurement and Protection of Public Interest within AVK, reorganized and accelerated decision-making processes, and introduced many good practices in the field of competition protection. He also strongly advocates a renewal of the legal framework in the context of the new competition law to make it easier, faster and more effective to enforce and protect competition in the economic area of Slovenia.
presentation (together for the Session I) 1.4 MB
SESSION II: NEW COMPETITION TOOL – MARKETS SUITABLE FOR APPLICATION
Pavel Doležal
Czech NCA
Pavel Doležal has been working as an economist at the Office for the Protection of Competition since 2001, focusing his activities on competition economics and analyses. In 2006-2008, he was a member of the Competition Appellate Commission of the Chairman of the Office. Subsequently, he held a number of positions within the Competition Division. In 2013-2018, he was the Director of the Department (and subsequently Head of the Unit) of Dominance and Vertical Agreements – Manufacturing. Since 2018, he has been an advisor to the Vice-Chairman responsible for the Competition Division.
presentation 305 KB
Zombor Berezvai
Hungarian NCA
Zombor Berezvai is currently Head of the Competition Economics and Market Research Section at the Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) and Associate Professor at Corvinus University of Budapest.
He graduated as an economist from Eötvös Loránd University and started his career at Procter & Gamble as Supply Chain Finance Manager responsible for the world’s largest feminine hygiene care production site. He later joined Planslab as a Senior Consultant, where he led several projects in the real estate and food industries.
He received his PhD from Corvinus University of Budapest in 2021. In his dissertation he analysed how different strategies affect the profitability of international grocery retailers. He started working at the Hungarian Competition Authority in 2018, where he has been the Chief Economist since 2019. He is an active member of the International Competition Network and the European Competition Network.
Zombor is regularly teaches statistics, decision making, market research, econometrics and competition policy at various universities and conducts research on several topics (e.g., competition policy and sustainability, micromobility, student evaluation of teaching, retail innovation).
presentation 489 KB
Renato Ferrandi
Italian NCA
Renato is the Director for International and EU Affairs of the Italian Competition Authority. He represents the Authority in international fora (including OECD, UNCTAD and ICN), manages bilateral cooperation projects and participates as speaker in international exchanges and capacity building projects.
Renato has more than twenty years of experience on competition and consumer protection. He was case manager of numerous investigations at the Italian Competition Authority, carried out several market studies and drafted formal opinions addressed to the Government or the Parliament.
Between May 2019 and January 2023, he joined the OECD as the responsible for the capacity-building programme for competition authorities in Eastern European countries provided by the Regional Competition Centre in Budapest.
He was also Seconded National Expert at the DG COMP of the European Commission for three years, between 2010 and 2013. He worked inter alia on the Ebooks case, on a State infringement case regarding digital TV spectrum in Italy, and on the assignment of premium sports rights in Europe.
presentation 617 KB
Goran Serdarević
Frontier Economics
Goran Serdarević has been actively involved in economic consultancy for almost 15 years and is currently an Associate Director at Frontier Economics Ltd., one of the largest competition consulting firms in Europe. He is also an expert witness in the field of economics (specialising in competition economics) registered with the Czech Ministry of Justice.
He has advised clients in a number of high-profile competition cases, including major investigations of abuse of dominance, assessments of mergers and market reviews before the European Commission as well as many local competition authorities, including in Czechia and Slovakia. Goran has extensive experience in assessing damages arising from distortion of competition, whether as a result of abuse of dominance or cartel agreements, and has led cases in the UK, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Poland.
Prior to joining Frontier, he worked for consultancy companies EEIP and McKinsey & Co. He holds a PhD degree in economics from Charles University in Prague and a master's degree in economics from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. He is fluent in Czech, Serbian/Croatian and English and conversant in German.
presentation 504 KB
SPECIAL LECTURE: CHALLENGES OF MODERN COMPETITION LAW ENFORCEMENT
Ioannis Lianos
University College London
Ioannis Lianos is professor of Global Competition Law and Public Policy at the Faculty of Laws, University College London. He is a member of the UK Competition Appeal Tribunal since 2024. He was President of the Hellenic Competition Commission from August 2019 to January 2024. Ioannis was elected a member of the Bureau of the OECD Competition Committee in 2021 and re-elected in 2022 and 2023. He was also a member of the EU High Level Group for the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and he was part of the Greek delegation during the negotiations for the adoption of the DMA. He was also the Chairman of the Special Law Commission that was in charge of the preparation of the New Competition Law Bill in Greece, which led to a significant reform of competition legislation in Greece in January 2022. He is the founding director of the Centre for Law, Economics and Society (CLES) at UCL Laws. He is also a senior fellow at CEBIL University of Copenhagen. He teaches the EU Competition Law course at the College of Europe in Natolin.
presentation 2.2 MB
SESSION III: PRIVATE ENFORCEMENT OF DAMAGES CAUSED BY ANTICOMPETITIVE CONDUCT
Petra Košťálová
Czech NCA
Petra Košťálová successfully graduated from the Faculty of Law of Masaryk University in Brno in 2008. After completing her studies, she gained valuable experience in the field of law in reputable law firms with a general legal focus. In 2010, she further developed her professional knowledge and gained a LLM degree in competition law at Queen Mary University of London.
Since 2011, she has been working at the Office for the Protection of Competition, where she specialises in cartel issues. In 2021, she was appointed head of the Cartel Department 2.
presentation 757 KB
Pavel Dejl
Kocián Šolc Balaštík, law firm
Pavel Dejl is a partner in a law firm Kocián Šolc Balaštík and leads its competition and litigation teams. He represents major Czech and foreign clients in competition proceedings before the Czech Competition Authority and the European Commission, as well as before Czech and EU courts, including the Supreme Administrative Court and the Court of Justice of the EU. He has won many significant cases on behalf of his clients that have had a significant societal impact both within the Czech Republic and across Europe. One of his most notable cases is the successful representation of Delta Pekárny before the European Court of Human Rights in a case concerning the lack of judicial review of inspections conducted by the Czech Competition Authority in the Czech Republic (awarded as a Competition Case of Europe in "The Lawyer European Awards 2015"). He has been recommended by international agencies Chambers & Partners, Who's Who Legal and Legal500 for many years as one of the leading Czech experts in competition law and litigation.
presentation 493 KB
Jiří Mňuk
ROWAN LEGAL, law firm
Jiří Mňuk is a senior associate at ROWAN LEGAL responsible for competition practice. He provides clients with comprehensive advice on all competition law matters, including cartels, abuse of dominance, concentrations of undertakings and state aid. He participates in representing clients in proceedings before the Czech Office for Protection of Competition, other national competition authorities or the European Commission as well as before courts in proceedings concerning antitrust damages actions. He also participates in legal advisory related to complex infrastructure and transformation projects in energy and other regulated sectors and provides legal advisory in complex transactions involving competition and regulatory notifications before the Czech Office for Protection of Competition, the European Commission and other regulatory authorities. In 2023, Jiří co-founded the Association for Competition Law and Regulation which aspires to interconnect and develop (not only) the Czech competition-law community. Jiří graduated from the Law Faculty, Charles University in Prague (Mgr., 2015) and the Faculty of Laws, University College London (LL.M. in Competition Law, 2022).
presentation 818 KB
Jana Přibylová
Municipal Court in Prague
After graduating from the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague, she worked as an assistant to the judge at the District Court for Prague 10. After her leave in 2012, she was appointed Head of the Legislative Department of the Ministry of Justice. She focused on legislative work until 2016, when she was appointed as a judge and assigned to the District Court for Prague 2, where she primarily handled cases involving state liability for damages. Since February 2021, she has dealt with cases related to industrial rights, competition law, and personal rights protection at the Municipal Court in Prague.
presentation 901 KB
SESSION IV: EXPERIENCE WITH ENFORCEMENT OF LEGISLATION ON UNFAIR TRADING PRACTICES AND RELATED SECTOR INQUIRY
Petr Solský
Vice-Chairman, Czech NCA
Petr Solský graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in Brno in 1998. At the same Faculty he received JUDr. degree in the field of criminal law. He worked in public administration on a number of managing positions, for example at the Ministry of the Interior or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2003 to 2010 he gained extensive experience at the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the EU in Brussels where he was responsible for management of the division of justice and interior including the coordination of preparations of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU. Back in the Czech Republic he worked in private sector in a law firm. Consequently he focused in particular on the area of information and communication technology, among others as a Deputy Minister of the Interior for this area in the years 2013 and 2014. Petr Solský has been focusing on a number of issues of criminal and administrative law including the regulatory framework for public procurement and prohibited state aid. He is a long term member of the Regulatory Impact Assessment Commission of the Government Legislative Council (RIA Commission).
On 5th April 2016 Petr Solský was appointed to the position of the Vice-chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition and entrusted with the management of the Legislative and Public Regulation Division.
presentation 516 KB
Petr Milas
Czech Federation of the Food and Drink Industries
He graduated with a Master's degree in Law from Charles University in Prague, where he specialised in Law and Legal Studies. From 2011 to 2023 he worked as Director of the Department of Administration of Quality Food Support and Director of the Economic and Legal Section of the State Agricultural Investment Fund. In 2024, he became Executive Director of the Food Chamber of the Czech Republic, where he focuses on the protection and representation of the interests of business entities of the Czech food industry.
presentation 721 KB
Christoph Winkler
Austrian NCA
Christoph Winkler joined the AFCA´s team as a case handler in April 2023 and he is currently assigned to Case Department-A (UTP-Unit) and the Litigation Department. He previously graduated from a Higher Institute of Technical Education in civil engineering (Austria) and completed his law studies at the Johannes Kepler University Linz (Austria). He completed various internships during his studies and then worked as a legal trainee at the Higher Regional Court of Vienna, as well as an associate at an international commercial law firm before passing the bar exam for Austria.
presentation 380 KB
WORKSHOPS
A – Procedural and Other Aspects of Merger Proceedings
Martin Vitula
Czech NCA
Since September 2007, he has worked as the Director of Merger Department. Before he worked as the Director of Department I of the Competition Section, where he focused on competition in the energy sector and industry and as an economist at the Office for the Protection of Competition.
He has contributed to the elaboration of a number of documents published by the Office for the Protection of Competition, and took part in many conferences and workshops in the area of competition. Martin Vitula graduated from the Faculty of Economics and Administration of the Masaryk University.
Radovan Kubáč
Nedelka Kubáč advokáti, law firm
Radovan Kubáč is an attorney and partner at the Prague and Bratislava offices of the law firm “Nedelka Kubáč Advokáti”, solely specialised in Czech, Slovak and EU competition law, regulatory matters, public procurement and compliance issues. He studied law in Olomouc, Frankfurt an der Oder and Saarbrücken. He worked for the Directorate – General for Competition of the European Commission and the Energy and Competition Office of Baden-Württemberg. Later, he worked at the law firms Gleiss Lutz and Schönherr. He specialises particularly in competition law, unfair competition, State aid and public procurement issues, on which he also gives specialised lectures.
Erika Lovásová
Slovak NCA
Erika Lovásová currently leads the Merger Department at the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic, which is primarily responsible for the merger review, including the investigating potential administrative offences related to mergers, as well as handling associated international agenda. In the past, she has held several positions at the Antimonopoly Office, most notably in the Second Instance Division, where she was responsible for reviewing first-instance decisions based on appeals lodged.
B – Punishment of Individuals for Anticompetitive Conduct
Igor Pospíšil
Czech NCA
Igor Pospíšil has been working for the Office for the Protection of Competition as a lawyer since 2001. He worked as the Head of the Working Group for Liberal Professions and then he was a Director of Manufacturing and Retail Department. Since 2007, he has been the Director of Cartels Department. He was also active for several years as a lecturer accredited by the Ministry of the Interior in the field of administrative law. He has been involved in the drafting of a number of competition documents and has participated in dozens of conferences and seminars in the field of competition. He is also engaged in legislative, publishing and lecturing activities, and is a co-author of the soft-law of the Office for the Protection of Competition.
presentation (together for the WORKSHOP B) 612 KB
Lenka Štaflová
Czech NCA
Lenka Štaflová joined the Competition Section of the Office in 2001. Since 2014, she has headed Cartels Department 1, which focuses primarily on detecting and investigating prohibited horizontal agreements. Recently, she has also been involved in lecturing for several state institutions, with a focus on detecting bid-rigging, and she has contributed to the creation and revision of the Office's soft law.
Lenka Štaflová holds a master's degree from the Faculty of Economics and Administration at the University of Pardubice.
presentation (together for the WORKSHOP B) 612 KB
Michal Fiala
Prosecutor General’s Office
Michal Fiala graduated from the Faculty of Law at Masaryk University in Brno and has been a public prosecutor since 2005, first at the Municipal Public Prosecutor's Office in Brno and since 2010 at the Serious Economic and Financial Crime Department of the Prosecutor General’s Office. He deals mainly with corruption, crimes in the field of public procurement, protection of the financial interests of the European Union, grant funding and the criminal law dimension of violations of international sanctions. As a public prosecutor of the Prosecutor General’s Office, he supervises specialised departments of the High Public Prosecutor’s Offices operating in criminal cases involving damage exceeding CZK 150 million and participates, as a second-instance authority, in decision-making activity in these criminal proceedings. On behalf of the public prosecution system, he also ensures communication and exchange of information with the European Public Prosecutor's Office EPPO. In the past, he has completed a study traineeship with the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the European Union Agency for Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters (Eurojust) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He has participated in the work of the OECD expert bodies on tax crime, money laundering and corruption. He also lectures at the Judicial Academy and the Police Academy of the Czech Republic.
presentation (together for the WORKSHOP B) 612 KB
Jiří Kindl
Skils, law firm
Jiri Kindl is a partner in law firm Skils s.r.o. (formerly Weil, Gotshal & Manges). In his legal practice, he specializes primarily in competition and regulatory matters. Jiri Kindl graduated summa cum laude from the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague. He also studied law at the University of Limerick (Ireland) and a post-graduate course at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford (University College) where he obtained Distinction and Clifford Chance Prize for Best Performance in Magister Juris, Winter Williams European Business Regulation Prize and Monckton Chambers Prize in Competition Law. He authored numerous publications on competition law topics both in the Czech Republic and abroad, e.g. he is the co-author of a textbook on Competition Law (Prague, C. H. Beck, 3rd edn, 2021), Commentary to the Czech Competition Act (Prague, C. H. Beck, 3rd edn, 2016), Commentary to the Act on Significant Market Power (Prague, C. H. Beck, 2017, 2024) and Commentary to the Act on Damages in the Area of Competition (Prague, C. H. Beck, 2019). Jiri Kindl also lectures competition law and economics at the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague. He has extensive experience with proceedings in front of the Czech competition authority, the European Commission as well as civil courts and he is regularly referred to in publications such as Chambers Europe, Global Competition Review or Legal500 as a leading antitrust lawyer in the Czech Republic.
