Introduction of Speakers and their Presentations
Day 1 Wednesday November 5, 2025
Petr Mlsna
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
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.
Juraj Beňa
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).
Assimakis Komninos
White & Case
Assimakis (Makis) Komninos is a Partner at the Brussels office of White & Case LLP. His practice focuses on complex cases of abuse of dominance, restrictive agreements and merger control reviews and on the Digital Markets Act (DMA) and Digital Services Act (DSA). He has acted in many landmark cases before the Union Courts. He was a Commissioner and Member of the Board of the Hellenic Competition Commission (HCC) between 2009 and 2011. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Global Competition Law Centre (GCLC) at the College of Europe and a visiting professor at Panthéon-Assas University Paris II.
Ana Sofia Rodrigues
Portuguese NCA
Ana Sofia Rodrigues was appointed Commissioner of the Portuguese Competition Authority (AdC) in April 2023. From October 2015 to April 2023, she was the Chief Economist and Director of the Bureau of Economic Studies and Market Monitoring of the AdC. In 2014/2015, she was Senior Competition Expert at the OECD Competition Division. Ana Sofia was also the President of ACE – the Association of Competition Economics from January 2020 to December 2022.
She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of York (2008), where she also completed the M.Sc. in Economics in 2002. She was a teaching fellow at the University of York, and a visiting research scholar at the Lebow College of Business, Drexel University, Philadelphia.
SESSION II: ECO – SYSTEM COMPETITION
Presentation 1.9 MB
Martin Machay
Czech NCA
Martin Machay is a graduate of the Faculty of Economics and Administration at Masaryk University, specializing in Economic Policy. During his professional career, he has worked as an academic at the faculty (2011–2013) and at the Institute of Economics of the Faculty of Business and Management at Mendel University (since 2011), where he served as Vice-Dean for Educational Activities at the bachelor's and master's degree levels from 2018 to 2023. In 2023, he joined the Department of Dominance and Vertical Agreements – Services at the Office for the Protection of Competition, where he focused primarily on telecommunications and digital markets. In addition to microeconomics and applied economics, he has also been involved in the development of economic thinking and has specialized in the economic aspects of space policy in his research activities. Since 2025, he has been the head of the Chief Economist Department at the Office for the Protection of Competition.
Giuseppe Colangelo
University of Basilicata
Prof. Giuseppe Colangelo is an Associate Professor of Law and Economics at the University of Basilicata, Senior Scholar at the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE), and Fellow at the Transatlantic Technology Law Forum at the Stanford Law School. From 2015 to 2017, he held the Jean Monnet Chair in European Innovation Policy. His primary research interests are related to competition law and policy, market regulation, innovation policy, intellectual property, and economic analysis of law.
Jan Dobrý
Clifford Chance
Jan Dobrý focuses on competition issues at law firm Clifford Chance Prague Association and heads the dispute resolution unit. He has extensive experience in advising on competition matters, both in the context of mergers and acquisitions and cartels and abuse of dominant position, as well as representing clients in this area before Czech courts and the Court of Justice of the European Union. He currently represents Seznam.cz before the Court of Justice of the European Union, which supports the European Commission in the Google Android case.
Tomáš Houška
AlixPartners
Tomáš Houška is an experienced economist specializing in competition law. He currently serves as vice president of the consulting firm AlixPartners. He assists his clients in resolving complex economic issues in the areas of competition law litigation, damages claims, class actions, and regulation. Tomáš has extensive experience with cases involving abuse of dominant position, assessment of vertical and horizontal agreements, and damage claims. In recent years, he has specialized in cases involving digital markets. During his career, he has gained extensive experience at the competition authority (ÚOHS), the regulatory body (Ofcom), and in consulting, which enables him to provide clients with economic analyses that reflect the perspectives of all relevant players. Tomáš holds a PhD in economics from Masaryk University and is fluent in English and German.
SPECIAL LECTURE: COMPETITION POLICY ON EDGE?
Bogdan Chiritoiu
Romanian NCA
Dr. Bogdan Chirițoiu is the President of the Romanian Competition Council since 2009.
In 2019, Bogdan Chirițoiu became member of the Administrative Board of the European Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER) and since 2024 he is the Vice-Chair of the ACER Administrative Board. From 2005 to 2009 he has served as Presidential Advisor and he was the Head of the Romanian Delegation to the EU Economic Policy Committee.
He holds, since 2008, a PhD in Economics (International Economic Relations) at the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, developing a thesis on Public Health Insurance Systems in the CEE States. Bogdan Chirițoiu has a MA in political science (Central European University, Budapest, 1997) and a MSc in European Studies (London School of Economics and Political Science, 1998).
Dr. Bogdan Chiritoiu is a lecturer on Public Administration and European Studies at the University of Bucharest, since 1999. He is a member of several Romanian and European think tanks: Romanian Society of Political Science, the Network of Institutes and Schools of Public Administration in Central and Eastern Europe – NISPA CEE, the Aspen Institute of Romania and the Romanian Academic Society.
REVISION OF EUROPEAN COMMISSION´S MERGER GUIDELINES
Terézia Ovečka
European Commission
Terézia is a Case Handler at the merger policy and case support unit of the European Commission’s DG Competition. She joined the Commission in 2017 and worked for almost 5 years as a Case Handler investigating mergers in basic industries, manufacturing and agriculture sectors. Prior to joining the Commission, Terézia worked briefly at the European Central Bank. Terézia holds a law degree (LLB) from the University of Manchester and an LLM in International Business Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Presentation 521 KB
SESSION III: STANDARD OF PROOF IN RECENT CASE LAW
Presentation 592 KB
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.
Marcela Káňová
ROWAN LEGAL
Marcela Káňová is a lawyer and partner at Rowan Legal, one of the leading law firms in the field of public procurement and competition law. Her main area of expertise is representation in administrative proceedings before the Office for the Protection of Competition, administrative courts, and the European Commission, as well as in submitting complaints within tender procedures. She also specializes in IT law, where she can apply experience from the IT sector gained while working for IBM. She has provided legal advice to clients in the areas of competition, significant market power, State aid, and public procurement until September 2021 as a partner at the Portos law firm, where she helped to establish a legal team specializing in these areas, which she also led for several years. She has participated in the implementation of projects in the fields of ICT, railway infrastructure, energy, and petrochemicals. Before starting her legal practice in 2015, she led the Public Procurement and Bid Rigging Monitoring Department of the Office for the Protection of Competition.
She is a member of the Appeals Committee of the Chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition for the area of public procurement and the Appeals Committee of the Director of the National Cyber and Information Security Agency. I is also worth mentioning her membership in the Supervisory Board of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, the Expert Team for the Digital Economy, the Expert Team for Legislation, and the Working Group for the Defence Industry and Technology at the Confederation of Industry and Transport of the Czech Republic. She is also involved in publishing and lecturing activities.
Michal Petr
Palacký University Olomouc
Michal Petr is the head of the Centre for Competition Law and currently also the head of the Department of International and European Law of the Faculty of Law at Palacký University in Olomouc. He graduated from Law and Jurisprudence at the Faculty of Law of Palacký University in Olomouc (2002) and continued his studies at the Faculty of Law of Masaryk University, where he obtained his juris doctor degree (2005) and Ph.D. (2008) in European Law. In 2019, he was appointed associate professor of European Union Law at Masaryk University.
Michal focuses on the economic aspects of European integration, in particular competition law, State aid, public procurement and regulation of network industries. He has gained experience in these areas through his work at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2011 and 2012 and, in particular, at the Office for the Protection of Competition, where he worked as a director of the Legislative and Legal Department from 2003 and as a Vice-Chairman of the Office from 2010 to 2015. He is an author of numerous publications on competition law, sector regulation and particular issues of administrative sanctions. He is a member of the Appellate Commission of the Czech National Bank and of the Office for the Protection of Competition.
Day 2 Thursday November 6, 2025
SESSION IV: CURRENT DEVELOPMENT OF UNFAIR TRADING PRACTICES ENFORCEMENT
Petr Solský
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 370 KB
Daniel Janda
Volopich, Tomšíček & spol.
Daniel Janda graduated from the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and is currently a lawyer at Volopich, Tomšíček & spol. Law Firm, where he has been working since 2014.
He specializes primarily in civil and commercial law, particularly in contractual relationships and obligations and litigation. He has been involved in issues of significant market power and unfair trading practices in supplier-customer chain as well. Within this agenda, he provides clients with comprehensive legal advice focusing on the application of legal framework in everyday practice. He also has experience representing investigated entities in proceedings before the Czech Competition Authority (ÚOHS) and in lecturing.
Presentation 191 KB
Barbara Jeannot
Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung
Barbara Jeannot has been a lawyer and deputy head of unit of the unfair trading practices unit at the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food since February 2022.
She studied law in Cologne, Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and Strasburg. From 2008 to 2022 she worked as a lawyer at the Bundeskartellamt. The main focus points of her work in the Unit German and European Antitrust Law were European cooperation within the European Competition Network as well as the food chain and maritime transport.
Presentation 1.6 MB
Andrej Matvoz
Slovenian Competition Authority
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 275 KB
WORKSHOP A: Competition Advocacy or Sanctions – Possible Cooperation Among NCAs In Context of Penalty Amount
Presentation Hanák - Breinek 1.8 MB
Petr Hanák
Czech NCA
Petr Hanák is a graduate of the Faculty of Law at Masaryk University in Brno. After completing his studies, he worked as a trainee lawyer in a general practice law firm. He joined the Office for the Protection of Competition in 2014. He specializes on cartel cases and the area of payment transactions.
Pavel Breinek
Czech NCA
Pavel Breinek completed the doctoral studies of Competition Policy at the Faculty of Economics and Administration of the Masaryk University in Brno. He worked as a lecturer at the Institute of Economics of the Faculty of Business and Economics of the Mendel University in Brno and at the Institute of Economics of the Faculty of Business and Management of the Brno University of Technology where his research, publication and educational activities were focused on the spheres of economics and competition policy.
Since 2018, he has been working at the Office for the Protection of Competition, and is specifically engaged in the resolution of issues related to the abuse of dominant position and prohibited vertical agreements. In 2021, he was appointed as Head of the Unit of Dominance and Vertical Agreements – Manufacturing.
Presentation Halamová Dobíšková - Kupčík 467 KB
Ivana Halamová Dobíšková
Allen Overy Shearman Sterling
Ivana Halamová Dobíšková is a senior attorney and member of the Central European competition law team at A&O Shearman law firm. She focuses on competition law, significant market power, State aid, and foreign investment screening. She holds a postgraduate degree in European Union law from the College of Europe in Bruges and a degree in economics in competition law from King's College London. She previously worked in the Legal Service of the European Commission. Ivana has experience representing clients before the Office for the Protection of Competition, the European Commission, and the Court of Justice of the European Union. As an expert on competition law, she is recommended by international publications such as Chambers Europe and Legal500. Since February 2021, she has been a member of the Appeals Commission of the Chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition for the area of competition and significant market power. She is also a member of the Presidium of the Competition Commission of the ICC Czech Republic.
Jan Kupčík
Schoenherr
Jan Kupčík is an attorney at Schönherr law firm. He works in Prague, where he leads the local competition law team, and in Brussels, where he is a member of the competition law and foreign trade team. He specializes in all aspects of competition law, including abuse of dominant position, cartel investigations in proceedings before national and European Competition Authorities, compliance, and mergers. An important part of his practice is also the area of foreign investment screening. He also has extensive experience in competition law disputes and unfair competition disputes, mergers and acquisitions, and various regulatory issues. He is also active in academia in these areas, lecturing on competition economics at the Faculty of Economics and Administration at Masaryk University. He is the leading author of the publication Modern Competition Law and Economics and a member of the Presidium of the ICC Czech Republic Competition Commission. He is recommended as a competition law expert by publications such as Chambers and Legal 500.
Workshop B: Commitments as Efficient Tool of Competition Policy
Martin Vitula
Czech NCA
Martin Vitula has been working for the Czech Competition Authority (CCA) for almost 25 years, most of that time dealing with issues related to the review of concentrations of undertakings. Since September 2007, he has been the head of the CCA´s team dedicated to this area of competition law. He has contributed to the preparation of documents issued by the CCA in connection with concentrations of undertakings and has participated in a number of competition law conferences and seminars.
Martin Vitula holds a master's degree from the Faculty of Economics and Administration at Masaryk University in Brno.
Jana Konopiská
Czech NCA
Jana Konopiská graduated from the University of Economics in Prague and Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in Brno. She has joined the Office for the Protection of Competition since 1993 and in her professional career she has focused on competition issues in network industries. Currently Jana Konopiská serves as a Head of Dominance and Vertical Agreements Unit.
In addition to her practical experiences arising from the investigation of individual cases of potential competition infringement, Jana Konopiská has also gained extensive experiences when preparing draft laws or methodical and similar materials. She has participated in working groups at national and international level, dealing with various issues of competition law. Jana Konopiská has also participated as a lecturer in numerous national and foreign educational events in the area of competition law and economics or sector issues.
Richard Maliniak
Nedelka Kubáč advokáti
Richard Maliniak is an attorney at the Prague and Bratislava offices of Nedelka Kubáč, a law firm specializing exclusively in Czech, Slovak, and EU competition law, regulated industries, public procurement, and compliance issues. He studied law in Brno, Antwerp, Prague, and Berkeley. He also worked at the European Commission's Directorate-General for Competition. In his practice, he specializes in competition law and State Aid issues.
Lenka Štiková Gachová
HAVEL & PARTNERS
Lenka Gachová specializes in competition law, State Aid law, and issues relating to significant market power. She provides legal advice in the areas of cartels, abuse of dominant position, competition assessment of mergers and acquisitions, and State aid. She represents clients in administrative proceedings related to merger review and provides advice on such matters. She represents undertakings suspected of anti-competitive conduct and provides legal advice on clients' projects from a competition law perspective. She also frequently assists companies with competition compliance matters.
Workshop C: Services Related to Purchase or Sale of Agriculture and Food Products
Georg Kebrle
Czech NCA
Studied in Technical University Vienna, University of Economics and Business Vienna, Faculty of Law, Masaryk University Brno
At the beginning of his professional career, Georg Kebrle worked in the field of personal protection and as an environmental consultant. In the business sector he worked in logistics (CEE-USA/Canada maritime container transport, CEE groupage transport projects) and in management positions, such as a statutory body of subsidiaries or advisor in international purchasing alliances operating primarily in the DIY and FMCG business segments, such as 3-E AG, EMD AG, Metspa, and VEDES AG. From 2008 to 2011, he was a member of the board of directors of the Czech Confederation of Commerce and Tourism. He gained professional experience during his collaboration with a law firm KGS Legal. He worked as a lawyer and on business development projects for the IT company U&SLUNO (supplier of retail software - ERP, WMS, Analytical tools). He has been leading the Methodology and Supervision of Market Power Unit since February 1, 2025.
Presentation 237 KB
Jaromír Kloud
Czech Association of Meat Processors
Joint owner of the family company KLOUD s.r.o. He joined Board of Directors of the Czech Meat Processors Association (ČSZM) in the spring of 1999, contributing to the development of the association’s strategy and activities. As Chairman of the Board, he represents the association in communications with the media, government institutions, and in expert discussions on legislation, meat quality, industry trends, and challenges facing the meat sector. Under his leadership, the association organizes key industry events (e.g., the MEATING Conferenceand the “Butcher and Sausage Shop of the Year” competition) and takes part in projects focused on sector development, education, and promotion. He is also active in member education, innovation, and adapting to new trends (training, digitalization, standards, sustainability).
Since May 2024, he has been a member of the Supervisory Board of the Food Chamber of the Czech Republic.
Presentation 92 KB
Igor Pieš
Czech Trade and Tourism Associations
Igor is an attorney and partner at Kastner & Pieš law firm. He specializes in regulated industries, particularly in the fields of life sciences and healthcare, IT, and retail. His practice includes comprehensive consulting on regulatory and commercial matters related to regulated products and services. In the retail sector, he focuses on various topics ranging from the implementation of European regulations, commenting on legislation, negotiating commercial contracts, and providing commercial and legal advice. He lectures on the legal regulation of healthcare within master's and LLM programs at the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague.
Presentation 130 KB