Administrative proceeding with the company Kofola settled

2008-07-30
The Office for the Protection of Competition terminated on 25 July 2008 the administrative proceeding with companies from the Czech section of the Kofola group.

During the investigation initiated in November 2007, the Office proved that the companies of the given group enetered during the years 2001 to 2008 into forbidden and void vertical agreements on retail price maintenance with their customers.

The agreements were concluded with some of the wholesale customers in various regions of the Czech Republic. These customers were bound to apply unified prices in further sale. The agreements mentioned above restrained competitive relations among Kofola customers and therefore decreased consumer benefits, otherwise resulting from the unharmed competition on the market of non-alcoholic beverages. Resale price maintenance ultimately leads to price increase for consumers and restriction of competition within the market of the given brand. Therefore, the Czech and European competition law consider such behaviour to be serious breach of competition rules.

For the first time in its history, the Office used so-called settlement procedure. The result of the settlement is not only substantial decreasing of the duration of administrative proceeding, but also reduction of the fine imposed on the company Kofola Holding. The penalty imposed is 13.552 million CZK, which sum is approximately only half of the fine that would be imposed without settlement, that means without the cooperation of the company with the Office and its acknowledgement of the behaviour.

External Relations Department of the Office

2025-01-08 / Google Made Changes to one of its Services in Reaction to the Investigation of the Office Last year, the Office for the Protection of Competition investigated possible abuse of a dominant position by Google Czech Republic, s.r.o, its parent company Google International LLC and Google Ireland...

2024-11-19 / Pet Food Supplier VAFO Has to Pay CZK 120 million for Prohibited Resale Price Fixing The Office for the Protection of Competition (hereinafter referred to as “the Office”) imposed a fine of CZK 120,121,000 on the undertaking VAFO PRAHA (hereinafter referred to as "VAFO") for the...

2024-10-16 / The Office is Conducting a Dawn Raid at the Premises of the Undertaking Seznam.cz Following numerous media inquiries, we confirm that the Office for the Protection of Competition (hereinafter referred to as “the Office“) is conducting an unannounced inspection of Seznam.cz

2024-10-01 / Merger of PPF Group and Nordic Telecom May Take Place Subject to Commitments The Office for the Protection of Competition has cleared the merger by its final decision, as a result of which PPF TMT Holdco 2 B.V. may acquire, through O2 Czech Republic a.s., sole control over Nordic...

2024-09-16 / The 2024 St. Martin's Conference Program Will Offer a new Competition Tool and Private Enforcement The Office for the Protection of Competition (hereinafter referred to as "the Office") is preparing the 17th annual St. Martin Conference on trends, news and hot topics in the field of competition. The...

2024-07-11 / 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...

2024-06-19 / Office for the Protection of Competition Cooperates with European Public Prosecutor's Office Today in Luxembourg, Mr Petr Mlsna, the Chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition, signed an agreement with the European chief prosecutor, Ms Laura Codruţa Kövesi, on cooperation between...

2024-05-09 / The Office Revealed and Punished Another Cartel Agreement between Construction Companies The Office for the Protection of Competition imposed fines totalling CZK 7,442,000 on the construction companies B.H.S. BOHEMIA, a.s., SEŽEV facility s.r.o., COMMODUM, spol. s r.o. and Hroší stavby...

If you want to recieve news by email please give us your adress and choose topic.

Email:
Significant Market Power
Public Procurement
State Aid
Competition
Significant Market Power
cs | en
+420 542 167 111 · posta@uohs.gov.cz
cs | en