Annual Report 2021
In 2021, the Office strived to become more open to the public despite restrictive COVID measures. A conference on State aid was held in June via webcast and a total of five Methodological Days dedicated to public procurement issues were held during the year. Apart from the ceremonial conference held in September on the occasion of the anniversary of the Office, the 14th St. Martin's Conference took place in November after a one-year break. During the year, the representatives of the Office participated in multiple conferences, workshops and other events where they discussed with the professional public the application of legal regulations within the powers of the Office. Memorandum of cooperation was signed with Masaryk University, Charles University and Mendel University and the Faculty of Law of Palacký University.
Considering decision-making practice in the field of competition, nine prohibited agreements were detected and punished, six of which concerned the most serious horizontal cartels, and fines exceeding CZK 160 million were imposed. For the first time ever, a ban on participation in public procurement was also imposed for bid rigging. The Office had significant success in judicial review of competition decisions - the Supreme Administrative Court upheld all ten decisions of the Office under review and the Regional Court in Brno upheld only two of the 12 actions filed.
In the field of public procurement supervision, the number of administrative proceedings and complaints filed increased significantly by approximately 40 percent. There were 737 decisions issued on merits and on interim measures. The total amount of fines imposed exceeded CZK 550 million, mainly due to the highest fine ever imposed in this area, which was a fine imposed on the Ministry of Defence for the purchase of army helicopters.
In the field of State aid, the Office focused on defending “COVID” aid programmes and measures and communicating their approval with the European Commission. In the field of significant market power, the Office focused on analytical activities and legislative works related to the transposition of the Directive on Unfair Trade Practices into the Czech legislation.
Annual Report 2021 5.7 MB
Press Unit of the Office for the Protection of Competition
2023-06-28 / The Office has Published the English Version of Its Annual Report 2022 The Office for the Protection of Competition (hereinafter referred to as "the Office") has published the English version of its Annual report for 2022. In the publication you will find complete statistical...
2022-09-23 / Representatives of the Review Bodies on Public Procurement Discussed in Prague the Application of Sanctions and Exclusion of Suppliers On 23 September 2022, the 11th meeting of the Network of First Instance Review Bodies on Public Procurement took place in Prague as a part of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union...
2022-04-20 / May 2022 Public Procurement Conference The Office for the Protection of Competition is preparing the first year of the May Conference on Public Procurement to be held on 18 and 19 May 2022. The conference will take place at the Brno headquarters...
2021-09-22 / The Office for the Protection of Competition commemorated 30 years of its existence at a celebratory conference The Office for the Protection of Competition (hereinafter referred to as ''the Office'') celebrated 30 years of its existence today with a celebratory conference held at the Liechtenstein Palace in Prague...
2021-09-01 / Annual Report of the Office for the Protection of Competition 2020 The Office for the Protection of Competition has published the Annual Report, summarising its notable activities in 2020 and outlining its agenda for 2021, the year in which the Office celebrates its...
2020-12-02 / Petr Mlsna Appointed as the Chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition Petr Mlsna was appointed by the President of the Czech Republic, Milos Zeman, as the Chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition on 1 December 2020
2020-10-07 / Chairman of the Office to resign on 1 December Peter Rafaj shall resign his position of the Chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition with effect from 1st December 2020. Mr. Rafaj has already informed the President of the Czech Republic...
2019-03-11 / Chairman of the Office is convinced that the investigation will confirm the legality of all administrative proceedings Last week, the Office for the Protection of Competition (hereinafter referred to as “the Office”) was one of the objectives of the police inspection, which main purpose was, among other things, to...