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: LATEST NEWS 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 239 KB
Juraj Beňa
Chairman, Slovak NCA
Juraj Beňa became the Chairman of the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic on 1 March 2023 after his appointment by the President of the Slovak Republic. He joined the Office from the telecommunications company Orange Slovensko, where he worked as a legal advisor in the field of regulation and competition law (10/2016 – 2/2023). Prior to that, he worked at the Cartels Department of the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic (1/2013 – 9/2016) and at law firms (9/2008 – 1/2013). He also gained experience in the field of competition law in an international environment, when he attended a traineeship as a national expert at the European Commission, Directorate General for Competition, and in this area, he also worked as a lecturer and academic. He graduated from the Faculty of Law at Comenius University in Bratislava (9/2003 – 6/2008, Master's degree) and completed his education in international and European law at the University of Amsterdam (9/2009 – 9/2010, LL.M. degree).
presentation 315 KB
Johannes Persch
European Commission
Johannes Persch is a competition lawyer in the European Commission’s Competition Directorate General. He works in the ECN unit which is responsible for the coordination of competition law enforcement with national competition authorities, with a particular focus of coordination in digital cases. He is also part of the team in charge of cooperating with national courts (e.g. in amicus curiae interventions) and preliminary reference questions before the Court of Justice. Besides this, his policy work includes private enforcement of EU competition law.
Johannes holds an LL.M. from the University of Chicago Law School and is qualified to practice law in Germany. Previously he worked as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Mannheim (Mannheim Centre for Competition and Innovation—MaCCI). His research has been published in leading European and German competition law journals.
presentation 585 KB
Andris Eglons
Latvian NCA
Andris Eglons has been working for the Competition Council of Latvia as a lawyer since 2019. He graduated from Faculty of Law of University of Latvia in Riga. He worked as the senior lawyer and chief lawyer in the Legal Department, with main specialisation in cartel cases. Since 2023, he has been the deputy head of the Legal Department. He has been involved in the drafting of a number of competition documents, including several draft laws regarding competition law and powers of Competition Council of Latvia. Previously, he was working in the Legal Department of State Probation Service (2017 – 2019) and at State Police as an investigator (2012 – 2016).
presentation 408 KB
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION:
Karel Šimka
Supreme Administrative Court
Karel Šimka is the President of the Supreme Administrative Court as of February 2022. He gained law and political science degrees from the universities of Pilsen, Prague and Passau. He has worked in judiciary; however, he is not considered a “typical” judge.
Initially, he served as a judge at a district court in the field of civil and distraint law, but in 2004, when he was 31 years old, he was appointed to the newly established Supreme Administrative Court. He now focuses mainly on financial law and economic regulation. He emphasizes the constitutional aspects of public law regulations and supports consistent protection of individuals’ rights. Since the beginning of his career, he has also focused on judicial policy and the administration of justice. At the Supreme Administrative Court, he was a member of four "small" chambers, as well as of the extended composition of the chamber, chamber for competence and disciplinary matters, and, as a substitute, of the so-called special chamber in the matters of jurisdiction disputes.
He works as an external lecturer at the Faculty of Law in Pilsen and at the CEVRO Institute, and has been a member of several academic research boards and other expert bodies in the field of justice and finance. He lectures and publishes mainly in the areas of tax law and administrative justice. He participated in a number of internships and study stays at foreign academic and judicial institutions, e.g. at the Swiss Federal Court in Lausanne in 2011 and at the German Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig in 2017.
presentation 331 KB
SESSION II: COMPETITION AND SPORTS
Petra Košťálová
Czech NCA
Petra Košťálová successfully graduated from the Faculty of Law of Masaryk University in Brno in 2008. After completing her studies, she gained valuable experience in the field of law in reputable law firms with a general legal focus. In 2010, she further developed her professional knowledge and gained a LLM degree in competition law at Queen Mary University of London.
Since 2011, she has been working at the Office for the Protection of Competition, where she specialises in cartel issues. In 2021, she was appointed head of the Cartel Department 2.
presentation 1.1 MB
Anna Głogowska
Polish NCA
Anna Głogowska is an expert in the Industry, Energy and Services Division in the Competition Protection Department at the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection. She graduated from law studies at the Faculty of Law and Administration (University of Warsaw). As an employee in the Industry, Energy and Services Division she is responsible for conducting preliminary and antitrust proceedings in various sectors of economy, in particular energy and sport.
presentation 180 KB
Jan Kupčík
Schönherr Rechtsanwälte, Organisational Unit
Jan Kupčík is an attorney at the law firm Schönherr. He works in Prague, where he leads the competition team, and in Brussels, where he is a member of the competition law and foreign trade team. He specialises in all aspects of competition law, including abuse of dominance, cartel investigations in proceedings before national and European authorities, compliance and mergers. An important part of his practice also involves foreign investment screening. He has vast experience in antitrust proceedings and unfair competition cases, mergers and acquisitions and various regulatory issues. He is also active in the academic sphere in these areas, including lecturing on competition economics at the Faculty of Economics and Administration of Masaryk University. He graduated from the Faculty of Law (Ph.D. 2022, Master’s 2017) and the Faculty of Economics and Administration (MA 2021, BA 2017) of Masaryk University.
presentation 267 KB
Michal Petr
Palacký University Olomouc
Michal Petr is the head of the Centre for Competition Law and currently also the head of the Department of International and European Law of the Faculty of Law at Palacký University in Olomouc. He graduated from Law and Jurisprudence at the Faculty of Law of Palacký University in Olomouc (2002) and continued his studies at the Faculty of Law of Masaryk University, where he obtained his juris doctor degree (2005) and Ph.D. (2008) in European Law. In 2019, he was appointed associate professor of European Union Law at Masaryk University.
Michal focuses on the economic aspects of European integration, in particular competition law, State aid, public procurement and regulation of network industries. He has gained experience in these areas through his work at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2011 and 2012 and, in particular, at the Office for the Protection of Competition, where he worked as a director of the Legislative and Legal Department from 2003 and as a Vice-Chairman of the Office from 2010 to 2015. He is an author of numerous publications on competition law, sector regulation and particular issues of administrative sanctions. He is a member of the Appellate Commission of the Czech National Bank and of the Office for the Protection of Competition.
presentation 540 KB
SESSION III: MERGER REVIEW
Martin Vitula
Czech NCA
Since September 2007, he has worked as the Director of Merger Department. Before he worked as the Director of Department I of the Competition Section, where he focused on competition in the energy sector and industry and as an economist at the Office for the Protection of Competition.
He has contributed to the elaboration of a number of documents published by the Office for the Protection of Competition, and took part in many conferences and workshops in the area of competition. Martin Vitula graduated from the Faculty of Economics and Administration of the Masaryk University.
Judit Buránszki
Hungarian NCA
Judit Buránszki is the Head of the Merger Section at the Hungarian Competition Authority. She joined the Authority in 2010, where she has since worked in various positions, including case handler at the Legal Unit and the Merger Unit, and legal counsel at the Litigation Section. She was appointed as the head of section in 2018. On behalf of the Authority, she has been a member of the ECN Merger Working Group for years. She obtained her law degree at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest.
presentation 306 KB
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 announced as one of the six most innovative lawyers in the Czech Republic, and, under his leadership, the law firm was five times awarded “Law Firm of the Year” 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 expert conferences. He is the co-author of the commentary on the Czech Competition Act and the author and co-author of numerous professional articles. He is also a founding member of the platform “Rozumné právo“ and a member of the editorial boards of the journals Antitrust and Oxford Competition Law.
Petr Zákoucký
Dentons Europe, Law Firm
Petr Zákoucký is managing partner of the Dentons Prague office. He is also head of the energy practice and co-head of the corporate practice. He has more than 15 years of experience in advising on M&A transactions, competition, regulatory and litigation issues. He focuses primarily on the energy, oil and gas, mining and infrastructure sectors. He also has extensive experience with acting on behalf of clients operating in the life science, engineering, manufacturing and IT sectors. As an advisor, he has acted in a number of major M&A transactions and litigation in the Czech Republic and in numerous European and non-European jurisdictions, including Africa, Australia, Asia and the USA.
Chambers Europe ranks Petr as one of the leading lawyers in the Czech Republic in the projects and energy sector and in the fields of competition and antitrust law.
Peter's experience includes advising on regulatory issues and acting before national and European regulatory authorities; drafting and negotiating commercial agreements, including joint venture agreements, long-term supply agreements or auction documentation; the process of preparing mergers and proposals for antitrust investigations before the Czech, Slovak and European authorities; advising on State aid issues, including filing complaints with the European Commission; advising on environmental and public procurement issues; acting before the Czech and EU courts; and advising on investment structuring and protection (BITs).
presentation 742 KB
SESSION IV: FIRST YEAR OF EXPERIENCE WITH THE SECOND EXTENSIVE AMENDMENT TO THE ACT ON SIGNIFICANT MARKET POWER
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 383 KB
Jiří Brož
Becker a Poliakoff, Law Firm
Prior to joining Becker & Poliakoff, Jiří Brož worked for leading Czech law firms such as Profous Legal or Havel, Holásek & Partners. He has extensive experience in providing legal services in the public sector, as well as in the field of public procurement and concessions. He is a member of the Czech Bar Association and provides legal services both in Czech and English.
presentation 386 KB
Pavel Dejl
Kocián Šolc Balaštík, advokátní kancelář, Law Firm
Pavel Dejl is managing partner of Kocián Šolc Balaštík law firm and leads its competition and litigation teams. He acts for prominent Czech and foreign clients in competition proceedings before the Office for the Protection of Competition and the European Commission, as well as before Czech and EU courts, including the Supreme Administrative Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union. He achieved many significant victories on behalf of his clients, with societal impact both within the Czech Republic and Europe. His most notable case is the successful representation of Delta Pekárny before the European Court of Human Rights in the matter of inadequate judicial review of inspections conducted by the Office for the Protection of Competition in the Czech Republic (awarded as a European Competition Case within "The Lawyer European Awards 2015"). He has been recommended by international agencies Chambers & Partners and Legal500 as one of the leading Czech experts in competition law and litigation for many years.
presentation 395 KB
Marijana Mutavdžić
Croatian NCA
Marijana Mutavdžić graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of Osijek in 2005. She began her career as a trainee at law office and after that was attorney-at-law. She practiced many branches of law and gained experience in commercial, civil, criminal and bankruptcy law. Since the end of 2014, she has been employed in the public sector initially at the Restructuring and Sale Centre as the General Counsel in the Legal Affairs Service and since December 2019 she works in the Croatian Competition Agency as the Senior Advisor (jurist) in the Unfair Trading Practices Legal Issues Department, Unfair Trading Practices Division. At the position of the Senior Adviser she works directly on administrative and non-administrative procedures that are in the competences of the Unfair Trading Practices Division, as a case handler. Also, she was a member of the working group in the preparation of the Act on the Amendments to the Act on the prohibition of unfair trading practices in the business-to-business food supply chain, implementation of the Directive (EU) 2019/633 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on unfair trading practices in business-to-business relationships in the agricultural and food supply chain into Croatian legislation.
presentation (together with Nikolina Radanović) 400 KB
Nikolina Radanović
Croatian NCA
Nikolina Radanović graduated from the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Zagreb. Since 2019 she has been working in the Croatian Competition Agency (hereinafter: the CCA) as an advisor (economist) in the Unfair Trading Practices Economic Issues Department. She joined the Department at the very beginning of its forming, actively participating in the creation of work processes, methodologies and patterns for uniform treatment in similar situations in the procedures of researching and investigating unfair trading practices, while using the knowledge and experience gained by working in the private sector. She participated in many market researches and cases (administrative proceedings) against buyers regarding unfair trading practices in the agricultural and food supply chain dealing thereby with numerous economic issues. Before joining the CCA she worked in several Croatian and international companies specializing in procurement, trading and consulting.
presentation (together with Marijana Mutavdžić) 400 KB
WORKSHOP I: Amendment to the Act on Protection of Competition – Alternative Solutions to Competition Issues (Commitments, Prioritization, Competition Advocacy), Settlement, Compliance, Sanctions
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.
presentation (together with Jana Konopiská) 480 KB
Jana Konopiská
Czech NCA
Jana Konopiská graduated from the University of Economics in Prague and Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in Brno. She has joined the Office for the Protection of Competition since 1993 and in her professional career she has focused on competition issues in network industries. Currently Jana Konopiská serves as a Head of Dominance and Vertical Agreements Unit.
In addition to her practical experiences arising from the investigation of individual cases of potential competition infringement, Jana Konopiská has also gained extensive experiences when preparing draft laws or methodical and similar materials. She has participated in working groups at national and international level, dealing with various issues of competition law. Jana Konopiská has also participated as a lecturer in numerous national and foreign educational events in the area of competition law and economics or sector issues.
presentation (together with Igor Pospíšil) 480 KB
Josef Bejček
Masaryk University
Professor Josef Bejček was Dean of the Faculty of Law at Masaryk University in Brno from 1995 to 2001 and still works at its Department of Commercial Law. He acted as an expert witness in major international arbitrations. He has been a member of the Appellate Commission of the Office for the Protection of Competition since the very beginning of its existence and worked in a number of commissions preparing drafts of new legislation (including the Civil Code, the Act on the Protection of Competition, the Act on Public Procurement) and is also an arbitrator of the Arbitration Court at the Czech Chamber of Commerce and the Czech Chamber of Agriculture. He has been a member of several scientific councils and self-governing bodies of the University. He acted in the bodies of the Accreditation Commission of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and the Council of the Government of the Czech Republic for Research and Development, and as a member of the Sectoral Council of Social and Economic Sciences of the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. He is a member of the Review Commission of the National Accreditation Office of the Czech Republic, a member of the Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA) and a member of the Czech Bar Association. He lectured in a number of European countries and also overseas. He is a member of several editorial boards of law journals; among others, he is the Chairman of the Editorial Board of the professional journal Antitrust. He is the author and co-author of numerous articles, studies and textbooks in the field of competition and commercial law. He is one of the first recipients of the Medal for Contribution to Competition and Public Procurement.
presentation 386 KB
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.
presentation 1.3 MB
WORKSHOP II: Services in the Food Supply Chain – Practical Issues
Jana Šlapáková
Czech NCA
Jana Šlapáková 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.
presentation 444 KB
Jana Buršíková
Rohlik.cz
Jana has been Group Chief Legal Officer of Rohlik Group since 2023; prior to her current position, she led the Group's Czech legal department for two years. During her career, she worked in leading law firms in the Czech Republic and as an in-house lawyer in the pharmaceutical and fast-moving consumer goods sectors. For several years, she also focused on building know-how systems and training programs for lawyers as a Professional Support Lawyer. From 2012 to 2014, she successfully led a civil law recodification project aimed at implementing new legislation into legal practice at the law firm Havel&Partners. She has been engaged in the significant market power issues on a long-term basis. Jana graduated from the Faculty of Law of Charles University and also studied at Oxford University, where, inter alia, she focused on competition law.
