J. Sroczyński for WuW No. 3/2005 – Ruling of the Court of Competition and Consumer Protection in the case of the National Notarial Council

The Court of Competition and Consumer Protection has ruled that the National Notarial Council (“NNC”) violated the Antimonopoly Law, imposing on public notaries an obligation to refrain from charging lower notarial fees than those established by the NNC. The Court has thus confirmed the decision of the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (“OCCP”), in which the practices applied by the NNC were qualified as anticompetitive. The NNC groups all Polish notaries and participation in this professional organization is obligatory.

The President of the OCCP has imposed a fine of PLN 1.4 million on the Polish Telecom for requesting from its clients to provide copies of agreements concluded with competitive operators.

The President of the OCCP has issued a decision stating that the Polish PKP Cargo Railways abused its dominant market position, discriminating a forwarding firm, Sped-Pro. The alleged discrimination consisted in offering Sped-Pro business conditions worse than those offered to other forwarders. PKP was fined in the amount of PLN 20 million.

J. Sroczyński, Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb. Developments in national competition law, No. 3/2005.