English Version of Annual Report 2023 published

The Office for the Protection of Competition presents the English version of its annual report for the year 2023, summarising the results of its activities in all areas of its competence, i.e., in the area of protection of competition, review of public procurement, control of significant market power in the sale of agricultural and food products, as well as in the area of State aid, where it is not a decision-making body, but plays a coordinating, monitoring and advisory role.

The area of access to transport infrastructure is now also included in the annual report. This competence belonged to the standalone Transport Infrastructure Access Authority in 2023; however, following the government decision, it was incorporated into the jurisdiction of the Office for the Protection of Competition since the beginning of 2024.

In the area of competition, a record number of administrative proceedings against prohibited agreements were concluded in 2023. Fines totalling CZK 268 million were imposed, out of which CZK 234 million have already come into force, mainly due to the use of the settlement procedure, and, thus, have become revenue of the state budget. In the field of merger control, the Office conducted a standard number of administrative proceedings, but, for the first time since 2005, the Office had to block a merger on the grounds that its implementation would cause a significant distortion of competition.

In response to the steep rise of prices of groceries, the Office carried out sector inquiries in five food markets and detected no indications that the price increases were due to systemic competition failures in the form of prohibited agreements. At the same time, no dominant position was detected at any level (farmers, grocers, retailers) in these markets.

In the field of public procurement, the Office had to cope with a significant increase both in the number of complaints investigated (up 71%) and, in particular, in the number of administrative proceedings, which increased by 48%. The most frequent detected misconduct is still the illegal setting of tender qualification criteria or requirements for the demonstration of classification. As a result of the Office’s intensive awareness-raising and methodological activities, there has been a visible decline in the number of cases of trivial misconduct by contracting authorities in procedures initiated on the basis of a proposal. On the other hand, mistakes in the publication of information after the conclusion of the procurement procedure and the signing of the contract are still very common.

Throughout 2023, the Office had a dialogue, in particular with the Ministry of Regional Development, on the future of public procurement supervision. The Office has primarily emphasized continuity with decades of decisionmaking practice and case law, and has proposed considering certain procedural changes which could reduce the length of the review process. However, it cannot accept unreasonable proposals for institutional and non-conceptual changes which would result in unfair conditions for smaller contracting authorities and suppliers or less efficient and inconsistent decision making.

In the area of significant market power, the Office focused mainly on educational and awareness-raising activities among the addressees of the amended Act on Significant Market Power, especially among farmers and food producers, to whom the legislation has newly applied. The Office held a number of training sessions and workshops to inform these entities about the new obligations. Due to the one-year transition period, the Office could not initiate new administrative proceedings. In the second half of the year, the Office carried out a number of sector inquiries to be evaluated in 2024. Administrative proceedings are initiated on an ongoing basis where misconduct is identified, and some are already pending.

In relation to the State aid agenda, it is possible to mention the participation of the Office in successful negotiations on notifications of aid measures, for example, for the so-called energy price caps for companies and households, aid for ecological district heating, construction and operation of facilities for the production of sustainable biomethane, the decarbonisation and improvement of energy efficiency of enterprises or the construction of a multifunctional hall in Brno.

As mentioned in the introduction, the integration of some of the staff and agenda of the abolished Transport Infrastructure Access Authority into the structure of the Office was also an important task. The Office had been preparing for this step for several months and aimed to implement it as efficiently as possible so that the exercise of decision-making power could continue without significant disruption. The integration has been carried out without major difficulties; administrative proceedings are being conducted and the integration has enabled the abolition of several redundant posts. The Office will now focus on establishing a coherent approach and improving the quality of decision-making activity in this area.

 English version of Annual Report 2023 available here 9.7 MB

 

Press Unit of the Office