J. Sroczyński for WuW No. 9/1999 – Regulations concerning the OCCP regional offices. Complaint against TVP

 On June 15, 1999, a consolidated text of the Antimonopoly Law was published in the Polish Journal of Laws. The text includes the recent amandements of the merger regulation, which entered into force at the beginning of 1999.

The Prime Minister issued a regulation defining the territotial and substansive scope of powers of the regional offices of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (“OCCP”). In essence, the regional offices (there are currently nine of them) have the powers to decide merger cases, where the combined annual turnover of undertakings involved does not exceed EURO 100 million. Exceptions apply for municipal, tourist, commercial, and cable television services, where the regional offices enjoy decision making powers even should the turnover be in excess of EURO 100 million. However, in individual cases the President of OCCP may decide that the headquarters in Warsaw should handle a particular notification, or that despite the formal powers of the headquarters, a given case should be handled by a regional office.

Wizja TV, a digital platform operator, filed with the OCCP a complaint against the public television, TVP, which refuses to broadcast Wizja TV’s advertisements. Wizja TV claims that TVP’s refusal is anti-competitive, especially in light of the high efficiency of placing advertisements in public television, as opposed to other means of advertising. TVP argues that it may not be obligated to advertize competitive activities, being itself engaged (together with Canal+) in the operation of a competitive platform, Cyfra+. In addition, TVP claims that the legal status of Wizja TV in not entirely clear, since it is not a holder of the Polish broadcast license. The case is currently pending before OCCP.

J. Sroczyński, Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb. Developments in national competition law, No. 9/1999.