Introduction of Speakers and their Presentations
Petr Mlsna
Chairman, Czech NCA
Petr Mlsna is the Chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition since 2 December 2020. Starting from 2003, he held a number of positions at the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic and at the Government Legislative Council. In late 2012 and early 2013, he held the position of Minister without portfolio and the Chairman of the Government Legislation Council. Subsequently, he was the acting Deputy Minister for Justice and for Education, Youth and Sports. Since 2015, until his appointment as the Chairman of the Office, he was the acting Deputy Minister responsible for the Section of Legislative, State Administration and Regional Administration of the Ministry of Interior.
SESSION I:
WHAT IS NEW IN COMPETITION LAW AND POLICY
Kamil Nejezchleb
Vice-Chairman, Czech NCA
Kamil Nejezchleb is the acting Vice-chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition and is responsible for the Competition Division since 1 April 2021. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in Brno and the Faculty of Business and Management of the Brno University of Technology in 2007. He completed the doctoral program at the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in 2019. His dissertation focused on the modernization of legal instruments for detection of cartel agreements and he also implemented several specific projects which focused on different aspects of competition law throughout his doctoral studies. In November 2008, he joined the Office and since then has served in several positions. For the last five years, he worked as the Head of the Unit of Cartels and the Deputy Director of the Department of Cartels. He also taught commercial and trade law at the Public Administration Academy in Brno. He has been engaged in long-term cooperation with the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Economics and Administration of Masaryk University where he gives specialized lectures on competition law and economics. He has gained extensive experience with the application of competition law abroad. He participated in a six-month internship at the European Commission - DG COMP and is active within the European Competition Network and International Competition Network. He also collaborated in the creation of the methodology for the leniency and settlement programmes and the preparation of recent amendments of the Act on the Protection of Competition. He engaged in training of contracting authorities on the issue of bid rigging on a long-term basis. He published several expert articles on competition. He is the co-author of the publication Economic Methods in Competition Law.
presentation 329 KB
Boris Gregor
Vice-Chairman, Slovak NCA
Boris Gregor has been a Deputy Chairman of the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic since April 2016. Boris Gregor graduated from Faculty of Business Management at University of Economics in Bratislava. He joins the Office from the company Bratislavská vodárenská spoločnosť, a. s., where he worked as Sales Director and he also held the position of Board Deputy Chairman (2011–2015). Previously, he was working for the company BELIMEX a. s. (2000–2011), where he held both the position of Board Chairman and director of the company since 2008.
presentation 1.2 MB
Maria Jaspers
European Commission, DG Competition
Since autumn 2020, Maria Jaspers is the Director of the Cartel Directorate of the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission (DG Competition). Prior to this appointment, she was the Head of Unit of the Antitrust Policy and Case Support Unit after having been Head of Unit in the Cartel Directorate for five years.
She joined the European Commission and DG Competition in 2001 and worked in different units dealing with antitrust policy and enforcement issues before starting her management career as the Deputy Head of the (then) Antitrust and Merger Case Coordination Unit in 2007.
Maria Jaspers is a Swedish lawyer and has a Master of European Law from the Europa-Institut in Saarbrücken, Germany. Before joining the European Commission, she spent two years in private practice in Sweden.
András Tóth
Vice-Chairman, Hungarian NCA
András Tóth has been the vice-president of the Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) and Chairman of the Competition Council since 2010. He previously worked at White & Case LLP offices in Brussels and Budapest. Dr. Tóth is an associate professor and deputy-head of the ICT Law Department at Károli University in Budapest where he teaches competition law, public procedural law and EU digital law. He is a member of the editorial board of the European Competition and Regulatory Law Review (CoRe) published by Lexxion in Berlin.
presentation 729 KB
SESSION II:
HORIZONTAL AGREEMENTS AND SUSTAINABILITY
collective presentation of panelists 492 KB
Igor Pospíšil
Czech NCA
Igor Pospíšil has been working for the Office for the Protection of Competition as a lawyer since 2001. He worked as the Head of the Working Group for Liberal Professions and then he was a Director of Manufacturing and Retail Department. Since 2007, he has been the Director of Cartels Department. He was also active for several years as a lecturer accredited by the Ministry of the Interior in the field of administrative law. He has been involved in the drafting of a number of competition documents and has participated in dozens of conferences and seminars in the field of competition. He is also engaged in legislative, publishing and lecturing activities, and is a co-author of the soft-law of the Office for the Protection of Competition.
Ivana Halamová Dobíšková
Allen & Overy, Law Firm
Ivana Halamová Dobíšková is a senior associate and a member of the Central European team for competition at the law firm Allen & Overy. She focuses on competition law, significant market power, State aid and public procurement. She holds a postgraduate degree in EU law from the College of Europe in Bruges and from "the Economics in Competition Law" programme at King's College London. Previously, she worked in the Legal Service of the European Commission. Ivana has experience in representing clients before the Office for the Protection of Competition, the European Commission and the Court of Justice of the EU. She is recommended as a specialist in competition law by international publications such as Chambers Europe and Legal500.
Since February 2021, she has been a member of the Czech Competition Authority Chairman's Appellate Commission responsible for cases in the field of competition and significant market power. She is also a member of the Bureau of the Commission on Competition at the International Chamber of Commerce Czech Republic.
Kateřina Mandulová
PwC Czech Republic
Kateřina Mandulová is a member of the Czech Bar Association and holds a managing position in PwC Legal. During her career, she has worked in international law firms and also as an in-house lawyer. She graduated from the Faculty of Law at Charles University in Prague and received her LL.M. degree in European Law from the College of Europe in Bruges. She is currently developing the ESG and public regulation agenda. She is fluent in English and French.
Martin Nedelka
Nedelka Kubáč advokáti, Law Firm
Martin Nedelka is an attorney-at-law and a partner in Prague and Bratislava office of law firm Nedelka Kubáč advokáti, specializing exclusively in the areas of Czech, Slovak and EU competition law, regulated industries, public procurement and compliance. Mr Nedelka studied law at the universities in Prague, Regensburg and Dublin. He is a member of the Czech Bar Association, the Slovak Bar Association and the Brussels Bar Association. He is also a member of the editorial board of Antitrust magazine.
SESSION III:
COMPETITION AND DYNAMIC MARKETS
Pavel Doležal
Czech NCA
Pavel Doležal has been working as an economist at the Office for the Protection of Competition since 2001, focusing his activities on competition economics and analyses. In 2006-2008, he was a member of the Competition Appellate Commission of the Chairman of the Office. Subsequently, he held a number of positions within the Competition Division. In 2013-2018, he was the Director of the Department (and subsequently Head of the Unit) of Dominance and Vertical Agreements – Manufacturing. Since 2018, he has been an advisor to the Vice-Chairman responsible for the Competition Division.
presentation 306 KB
Jakub Chini
Masaryk University, Faculty of Economics and Administration, CompetitionSphere
Jakub Chini is a senior economist at CompetitionSphere, where together with Gregor Langus (2021 and 2022 Who's Who Legal) they provide advisory services on mergers, abuse of dominance, prohibited agreements and damages. As a consultant, he has been involved in cases before the European Commission, the DOJ, the FTC, the ICDR, as well as several European competition authorities. Prior to joining CompetitionSphere, he worked at E.CA Economics.
Jakub is currently completing his PhD at the Faculty of Economics and Administration of Masaryk University, where he teaches competition economics and microeconomics. As part of his PhD, he acts as a judicial expert on behalf of the University for cases in the passenger rail transport and energy sectors, including testimony before Czech courts.
presentation 285 KB
Vitaly Pruzhansky
Partner, RBB Economics
Vitaly Pruzhansky is a Partner of RBB Economics and has worked in consultancy since completing a PhD in 2005. He is listed in the Competition Economists chapter of Who’s Who Legal and has published articles on economic theory and competition policy in the European Journal of Law and Economics, Journal of Competition Law and Economics, International Journal of Game Theory and Theory and Decision.
Vitaly’s consulting experience spans a wide range of competition policy matters, including mergers and acquisitions raising both horizontal and vertical issues, as well as a number of projects under the European Articles 101 and 102 provisions and their national analogues. He has advised clients from a broad range of sectors, including banking and insurance, chemicals, consumer electronics, energy, FMCG, industrial consumables, metals and mining, telecommunications and media, military equipment, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, software and transport.
Vitaly has delivered a number of training seminars on the application of empirical techniques and economic analysis in competition investigations to enforcement agencies in Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Romania, Ukraine and several MENA countries.
Goran Serdarevič
Associate Director, Frontier Economics
Goran Serdarević has been actively involved in economic consultancy for more than 10 years and is currently a Director at Frontier Economics Ltd., one of the largest competition consulting firms in Europe. He is also an expert witness in the field of economics (specialising in competition economics) registered with the Czech Ministry of Justice.
He has been involved in a number of competition cases, including major investigations of abuse of dominance, assessments of mergers and market reviews before the European Commission as well as many local competition authorities. He acted as economic advisor to the Slovak Telekom during the Commission's investigations in 2009-2015 (case AT.39523) and also participated in the subsequent appeal process at the CJEU (T-827/14 and T-851/14). Goran also worked on a number of major proposed mergers, such as the successful mergers of Vodafone and Liberty Global in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary and Romania (M.8864) or the attempted merger of O2 and H3G mobile operators in the UK and the successful appeal to the General Court of the CJEU (M.612). He has extensive experience in assessing damages arising from distortion of competition, whether as a result of abuse of dominance or cartel agreements, and worked on cases in the UK, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.
Prior to joining Frontier, he worked for consultancy companies EEIP and McKinsey & Co. He holds a PhD degree in economics from Charles University in Prague and a master's degree in economics from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich. He is fluent in Czech, Serbian/Croatian and English and conversant in German.
SESSION IV:
VERTICAL AGREEMENTS – NEW APPROACHES OF THE CZECH NCA: HIGHER REWARDS FOR COOPERATION OF UNDERTAKINGS
Lenka Svobodová
Czech NCA
Lenka Svobodová graduated from the Brno University of Technology in 1995 and she joined the Office for the Protection of Competition since the same year. Since the beginning of her professional career at the Office, she has been focusing on the area of protection of competition against its unlawful distortion, in particular through agreements between undertakings or abuse of dominant position. She has dealt with cases from various sectors, especially energy, health and pharmaceuticals, agriculture, forestry and water management, retail sales of goods and so on. In 2018, she was appointed as Head of the Unit of Dominance and Vertical Agreements – Manufacturing. In 2021, she has been appointed as Director of the Dominance, Mergers and Vertical Agreements Department.
presentation 688 KB
Jiří Kindl
Skils, Law Firm
Jiri Kindl is a partner in law firm Skils s.r.o. (formerly Weil, Gotshal & Manges). In his legal practice, he specializes primarily in competition and regulatory matters. Jiri Kindl graduated summa cum laude from the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague. He also studied law at the University of Limerick (Ireland) and a post-graduate course at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford (University College) where he obtained Distinction and Clifford Chance Prize for Best Performance in Magister Juris, Winter Williams European Business Regulation Prize and Monckton Chambers Prize in Competition Law. He authored numerous publications on competition law topics both in the Czech Republic and abroad, e.g. he is the co-author of a textbook on Competition Law (Prague, C. H. Beck, 3rd edn, 2021), Commentary to the Czech Competition Act (Prague, C. H. Beck, 3rd edn, 2016), Commentary to the Act on Significant Market Power (Prague, C. H. Beck, 2017) and Commentary to the Act on Damages in the Area of Competition (Prague, C. H. Beck, 2019). Jiri Kindl also lectures competition law and economics at the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague. He has extensive experience with proceedings in front of the Czech competition authority, the European Commission as well as civil courts and he is regularly referred to in publications such as Chambers Europe, Global Competition Review or Legal500 as a leading antitrust lawyer in the Czech Republic.
presentation 882 KB
Petr Zákoucký
Dentons Europe, Law Firm
Petr Zákoucký is the Czech Republic Managing Partner. He is the Head of the Energy practice and Co-Head of the Corporate/M&A practice in Dentons' Prague office. He has 15 years of experience in advising on M&A, competition, regulatory and litigation matters. Petr has a strong working track record in advising clients operating in energy/infrastructure, life science, engineering, manufacturing and IT. Petr's work involves a number of jurisdictions outside of Europe incl. Africa, Australia/Asia and US. Petr is recognized by Chambers Europe as a Band 1 practitioner in Project & Energy and Band 2 practitioner in Competition/Antitrust.
Petr' s experience encompasses advising on regulatory issues and representing before national and EU regulators; representing sellers and buyers in M&A, in particular in energy sector; drafting and negotiating commercial arrangements, including JV agreements, long-term supply agreements or auction documentation, drafting merger filings and submissions in antitrust investigations before Czech, Slovak and EU competition authorities; representing in state aid proceedings and complaints before the EU Commission; advising on environmental matters and public procurement; and representing in litigation before Czech and EU courts, and advising on investment protection (BITs) structuring.
presentation 827 KB
SESSION V:
REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL ON FOREIGN SUBSIDIES DISTORTING THE INTERNAL MARKET
Petr Solský
Vice-Chairman, Czech NCA
Petr Solský graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in Brno in 1998. At the same Faculty he received JUDr. degree in the field of criminal law. He worked in public administration on a number of managing positions, for example at the Ministry of the Interior or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2003 to 2010 he gained extensive experience at the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the EU in Brussels where he was responsible for management of the division of justice and interior including the coordination of preparations of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU. Back in the Czech Republic he worked in private sector in a law firm. Consequently he focused in particular on the area of information and communication technology, among others as a Deputy Minister of the Interior for this area in the years 2013 and 2014. Petr Solský has been focusing on a number of issues of criminal and administrative law including the regulatory framework for public procurement and prohibited state aid. He is a long term member of the Regulatory Impact Assessment Commission of the Government Legislative Council (RIA Commission).
On 5th April 2016 Petr Solský was appointed to the position of the Vice-chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition and entrusted with the management of the Legislative and Public Regulation Division.
presentation 257 KB
Marek Martyniszyn
Queen's University Belfast
Prof. Marek Martyniszyn is a Professor of Competition Law & Policy at Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland). He specialises in international and cross-borders aspects of competition law and policy, including the limits of extraterritorial jurisdiction and state involvement in anticompetitive practices. His research has a strong perspective of new competition systems and new agencies, especially those in developing countries and economies in transition. Prof. Martyniszyn is a Non-Governmental Advisor to the International Competition Network (ICN). He had presented his work also on various other fora, including UNCTAD and COMESA. His online profile is available at: http://go.qub.ac.uk/Martyniszyn.
Filip Křenek
DG Competition
Filip Křenek is a member of the Foreign Subsidies Working Group within the International Relations Unit of the European Commission's Directorate General for Competition.
He joined DG Competition in 2018, specifically the unit responsible for relations with the European Parliament, the Council and other EU institutions. In this unit he monitored the competition aspects, for example, in legislation related to the companies´ access to digital platforms, in the field of fair taxation and also within the Multiannual Financial Framework 2021-2027. Between 2019-2020, he worked at the European Commission as a coordinator of communication and information activities for the Czech Republic and Slovakia within the Directorate General for Regional Policy, and he also participated in preparation of the new trade agreements with Latin American countries (Chile, Mexico, MERCOSUR) as part of his work at the Directorate General for Foreign Trade.
Since June 2020, he has been involved in the preparation and negotiation of the Commission's draft Regulation on foreign subsidies distorting the internal market, currently focusing on the implementation of this Regulation.
presentation 213 KB
WORKSHOP I:
Beyond the scope of ECN+ Amendment to the Competition Act and Associated Practical Issues
Aleš Drbal
Czech NCA
Aleš Drbal graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in 2004. Since 2006 he has been working as a lawyer at the Office for the Protection of Competition on different positions including first and second instance decision-making. Currently, he is one of the heads of the Second Instance Decision-Making Departments. Since 2011 he has been working as the Chairman of both Appellate Committees dealing with protection of competition and significant market power, state aid and access to information. In the past he was acting also as a Deputy of the Director of the Second Instance Decision-Making Section.
In autumn 2009 he completed an internship within the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission.
Before joining the Office he had worked in a law firm with general practice in Brno. In the past he was an external lecturer at some schools.
He is also a regular contributor to the Czech-Slovak magazine "Antitrust" which focuses on the competition law.
Lenka Štaflová
Czech NCA
Lenka Štaflová has been working in the Competition Division of the Office for the Protection of Competition since 2001. From 2004 to 2006, she was head of the Department of Restrictive Practices for the food, agriculture and retail sectors. Since 2014, she has been the Head of the Cartel Unit 1. She regularly participates in on-site inspections conducted by the Office as a team leader and is also involved in a number of on-site inspections from an organisational point of view. In recent years, she has also been involved in lecturing activities for selected state organisations with a focus on bid-rigging detection, and leads the Office's working group dealing with the amendment to the Office's current methodology for calculation of fines.
Lenka Štaflová holds a Master's degree from the Faculty of Economics and Administration at the University of Pardubice.
Robert Neruda
HAVEL & PARTNERS, Law Firm
Robert Neruda is a partner and leader of a team of competition lawyers and economists at the law firm HAVEL & PARTNERS. Before that, he was the Vice-Chair of the Office for the Protection of Competition. He is specialized in the fields of cartels, abuse of dominance and competition law assessments of mergers and acquisitions, significant market power and State aid, compliance and Foreign Direct Investment. In 2017, he was named one of the six most innovative lawyers in the Czech Republic, and, under his leadership, the law firm won the “Law Firm of the Year” five times in the competition law category (for years 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2020).
In 2004 and 2005, he was an assistant judge of the Supreme Administrative Court. He gives lectures at the Masaryk University in Brno and also at international specialised conferences. He is the co-author of the commentary on the Czech Competition Act and the author and co-author of several professional articles. He is also a founding member of the “Rozumné právo“ (Reasonable Law) platform and is a member of the editorial boards of the professional journals Antitrust and Oxford Competition Law.
Michal Petr
Palacký University Olomouc
Michal Petr is an assistant lecturer at the International and European Law Department of the Faculty of Law at Palacký University Olomouc. He lectures European law with the focus on competition law, State aid, public procurement and regulation of network industries. Michal gained his extensive experience in these areas when he worked at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2011 and 2012 and in particular during his career at the Office for the Protection of Competition. He served at the Office as a director of Legislative Unit from the year 2003, as a director of Division of Legislation and International Affairs from the year 2006 and finally, as a Vice-chairman of the Office from 2010 to 2015. He is an author of numerous publications on competition law, sector regulation and on particular issues of administrative punishment. He is a member of the editorial board of the magazines ANTITRUST and Public Governance, Administration and Finances Law Review, a national contributor to magazine European Competition and Regulatory Law Review. He is also a member of the Appeals Commitee of the Czech National Bank and of the Office for the Protection of Competition.
WORKSHOP II:
Competition and/or Regulation – Selected Cases
Pavel Breinek
Czech NCA
Pavel Breinek completed the doctoral studies of Competition Policy at the Faculty of Economics and Administration of the Masaryk University in Brno. He worked as a lecturer at the Institute of Economics of the Faculty of Business and Economics of the Mendel University in Brno and at the Institute of Economics of the Faculty of Business and Management of the Brno University of Technology where his research, publication and educational activities were focused on the spheres of economics and competition policy.
Since 2018, he has been working at the Office for the Protection of Competition, and is specifically engaged in the resolution of issues related to the abuse of dominant position and prohibited vertical agreements. In 2021, he was appointed as Head of the Unit of Dominance and Vertical Agreements – Manufacturing.
presentation 221 KB
Ondřej Dostal
CEZ Group
Ondřej Dostal heads the Competition Compliance Unit of ČEZ, a. s., which ensures ČEZ Group companies' compliance with competition law. From 2007 to 2014, he was an expert of the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the European Union in the fields of competition, State aid and public procurement. Between 2004 and 2007, he was a Director of the International Department and a member of the Appellate Commission of the Office for the Protection of Competition. He is co-author of various publications on competition law.
presentation 639 KB
Jan Měkota
ROWAN LEGAL, Law Firm
Jan Měkota leads ROWAN LEGAL's competition practice. He provides clients with comprehensive advice in all competition-related matters ranging from cartels to State aid and private enforcement of damages. His team represents the clients in proceedings before the Office for the Protection of Competition, other NCAs or before the European Commission. Within competition practice, he has long been involved in developing and implementing internal compliance systems, particularly on competition and criminal law prevention.
Jan provides competition advisory mainly to clients in the ICT and TMT sectors, energy suppliers, clients from construction industry or to e-commerce clients. He has been a member of the ROWAN LEGAL team since 2013.
presentation 215 KB
WORKSHOP III:
Determining the Turnover of an Undertaking in Accordance with the Directive on Unfair Trading Practices – Practical Issues
Jana Zmeškalová
Czech NCA
Jana Zmeškalová graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in 2005. She has worked at the Office for the Protection of Competition since 2014. In 2016, she became the head of the Control over Market Power Unit. Currently, she is the head of the Methodology and Control over Market Power Department. Between 2014 and 2015, she worked as a Remonstrance commission´s secretary for the Unit of 2nd Instance Decision-Making in the field of competition and participated in decisions processing as well as in defending the Office before administrative courts in a number of important cases. Before joining the Office, she had served for seven years as an assistant to presiding judge of a chamber of Criminal Division at the Supreme Court. From 2005 to 2007 she worked in a law firm.
Ondřej Vondráček
Lexperanto
Ondřej Vondráček is a member of Lexperanto, an association for intelligible and accessible law, where he deals with IT solutions in law, especially transparency of corporate ownership structures, including small and medium-sized enterprises, and tax transparency. He has published several monographs and numerous articles in this area. In addition, he is active in the EU institutions and also worked in an international law firm. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Law of the Charles University, College of Europe and SciencesPo.
presentation 1.2 MB
