J. Sroczyński for WuW No. 3/1998 – Rulings of the Antimonopoly Court in cases of Telekomunikacja Polska and TVP

Following October 3, 1997 amendment of Law on Counteracting Monopolistic Practices, acquisitions of shares of listed companies are subject to merger control regulation. So far, such acquisitions were exempt from the notification requirement. The procedures concerning notifications are virtually the same as in the case of other mergers (see WuW 9/1997, at p. 712 and WuW 12/1997, at p. 976). However, the deadline for issuance by the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection of the statement-of-no-objection (or a prohibiting decision) is two weeks from the date of filing, and not two months which is a standard term. The amendment is effective as of January 3, 1998.

The Antimonopoly Court ruled that the Polish national telecom monopoly, Telekomunikacja Polska S.A. must reduce the amount of fees collected from other telecom operators for the lease of digital links. Following the reduction, the fees should correspond to their equivalents in the European Union countries. The Antimonopoly Court held that the excessive fees were detrimental to the development of competition, having an adverse effect on the growth of mobile telephony operators. Furthermore, the Antimonopoly Court emphasized that since labor costs are lower in Poland than in the European Union, there are no economical reasons for the Polish telecom to apply higher fees.

TVP Szczecin, a local division of the Polish national television program, committed monopolistic practices consisting in predatory pricing. According to the judgment of the Antimonopoly Court, TVP Szczecin abused its monopolistic position by offering exceptionally favorable conditions of television advertising to its clients, to the detriment of a local competitor which newly entered the television market. The Antimonopoly Court declared that the so-called “promotional campaign” of TVP Szczecin was in fact intended to eliminate its competitor and upheld the prohibiting decision of the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection.

J. Sroczyński, Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb. Developments in national competition law, No. 3/1998.