Building savings companies infringed competition law
The companies in question were imposed a fine amounting to CZK 201 million in total (appr. 6.7 million €). The decision has not entered into force yet, the parties can file an appeal against the decision to the Chairman of the Office.
The Office stated in its decision that the parties infringed the competition law by entering into and fulfilment of a prohibited agreement on sharing information. The companies were mutually exchanging contents and structure of their statistical summaries as they agreed in the meeting of the Working association of building saving companies held on the 18th December 1997.
However, the Office has not proved concerted prohibited practices in setting the fees for administration of building saving accounts among the parties as well as alleged collective abuse of dominant position and has stopped the relevant parts of the proceeding. From abovementioned reasons, the fine was decreased in comparison with the CZK 484 milion fine in the original first-instance decision from August 2004, that was canceled by the decision of the Chairman in August 2005.
Press and Personnel Department
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