J. Sroczyński for WuW No. 12/2003 – Consent by the President of the OCCP to cooperation in the brewing and telecom markets

The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (“OCCP”) has consented to an acquisition by the Dutch beer producer, Heineken, of three Polish breweries from the Austrian Brau Union. This acquisition increases to nine the total number of breweries which Heineken owns in Poland.

The President of the OCCP has also approved a joint venture transaction between Motorola and three Polish companies, Prokom Software, Computerland and Tel-Energo, relative to the trunking digital telecom system to be used by Polish governmental agencies for purposes of crisis management. This project is a part of so-called “offset” program, which supplements a major military Poland – U.S. transaction, concluded to modernize the Polish army with F-16 jets.

Thirty new so-called “abusive clauses” were introduced by the OCCP to a special register, accessible also on the OCCP’s website, which contains the list of prohibited contractual clauses harming the consumers. The overall number of abusive clauses has, therefore, increased to seventy seven. The main areas where such illegal practices were used are the activities of travel agencies, real estate agencies and housing developers.

J. Sroczyński, Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb. Developments in national competition law, No. 12/2003.