J. Sroczyński for WuW No. 3/2014 – Conditional decision by the President of the OCCP on a concentration involving newspaper publishers
The President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (the “OCCP”) issued a conditional clearance decision to Polskapresse, a press publisher belonging to Verlagsgruppe Passau. The OCCP approved an acquisition by Polskapresse from Mecom Holding of Media Regionalne, a publisher of several local newspapers. The OCCP imposed a structural remedy, obligating Polskapresse to divest “Dziennik Wschodni”, a newspaper distributed mainly in the town of Lublin and its vicinity. Polskapresse must also sell-off two domains used for the internet editions of “Dziennik Wschodni”. The divestments should follow within one year and the buyer should be pre-approved by the OCCP. In its market investigation, the OCCP has found that, absent the imposed remedy, the transaction would adversely affect competition on the local markets of daily newspapers and media advertising.
The Court of Competition and Consumer Protection confirmed the decision of the OCCP issued in 2006, in which the authority prohibited the common setting of interchange fees by banks. The fees were charged from merchants for Visa and MasterCard payment transactions. The OCCP has found that 20 banks in Poland participated in the above anticompetitive agreement. The OCCP did not challenge the amount of the fees but only the fact that they were agreed upon. However, the OCCP expressed an opinion that the agreement could lead to higher prices finally paid by consumers. The ruling, issued by the first instance court, can be further appealed to the Court of Appeals in Warsaw.
The OCCP initiated the antimonopoly proceedings against the Notarial Chamber in Warsaw, alleging the violation of the Antimonopoly Law by precluding its members from participating in tenders for notarial services. The Notarial Chamber in Warsaw groups notaries from Warsaw and its vicinity. Membership in the Chamber is obligatory and notaries can subject to various sanctions for disobedience with its internal regulations. The OCCP claims that the policy of the Notarial Chamber restricts competition between notaries and thus adversely affects prices for their services. The OCCP referred to the ruling of the Supreme Court of 2004, in which the court confirmed that notaries are authorized to participate in public tenders.
The Court of Competition and Consumer Protection confirmed the decision of the OCCP of 2009, prohibiting seven Polish cement producers from participating in the price fixing and market sharing cartel. The cartel lasted for 11 years and covered nearly all of the Polish cement market. Two cartelists decided to apply for leniency. Accordingly, Lafarge Cement benefitted from full immunity and Gorazdze Cement obtained a 50% reduction of the fine. All the fines were calculated or imposed in the maximum statutory amount, i.e., 10% of turnover, and totalled to 100 million euro. The first instance court upheld the OCCP’s decision in the substance but decreased the fines to the total of 83 million euro. The ruling can be appealed to the Court of Appeals in Warsaw.
The OCCP prohibited a cartel of three companies active on the market of mining products, such as polyurethane glues and phenol foams, used in coal mines as insulation materials. The involved entities are Minova Ekochem, A. Weber and Schaum-Chemie. All the three were engaged in the practices of bid rigging, price fixing and market sharing, to the detriment of coal mines which organized tenders for the cartelized products. The OCCP opened its proceedings upon information from the public prosecutor’s office and cooperated with the Agency for the National Security in the process of collecting evidence. The OCCP imposed total fines in the amount of 4.5 million euro.
J. Sroczyński, Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb. Developments in national competition law, No. 3/2014.
