Competition Enforcement in the Recently Acceded Member States

The Competition Law Research Centre and the Hungarian Competition Law Association organises a conference on the ‘Competition Enforcement in the Recently Acceded Member States’.

For more information see the website of the conference: www.eccompetitionlaw.eu 

Why?

Countries that recently acceded to the European Union have long history with competition law. Most of these countries also represent smaller, open market economies, which have faced a rapid and recent privatisation process. These countries have also endured several common historical events that make them face similar market situations and problems including inter alia excessive pricing, bid rigging, refusal to access as well as issues related to the current financial crisis.

Topics include…

The aim of this conference is to address issues that arise in competition enforcement in these rapidly developing economies with ever increasing competition expertise. This one day conference will address topics in the application of competition legislation on anticompetitive agreements, unilateral conduct, as well as issues related to the application of competition legislation in the wake of the financial crisis.

Speakers

Our speakers include the President of the Hungarian NCA (Gazdasági Versenyhivatal), the Head of Competition Outreach at OECD, the VIce-President of the Polish NCA (Office of Competition and Consumer Protection), Vice-Chairman of the Czech NCA (Office for the Protection of Competition), Members of the Hungarian Competition Council, Chief-Economist of the Hungarian NCA, senior OECD experts, highly acknowledged academics, officials and lawyers from leading regional law firms.

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Meeting competition defence

The European Court of Justice in two of its recent cases has clearly acknowledged the meeting competition defence.  The afterlife of Syfait (Sot. Lelos kai Sia EE and Other v. GlaxoSmithKline AEVE Farmakeftikon Proionton, C-468/06 to C-478/06)  has already been commented many times. In the recent case of Kanal 5 Ltd and TV 4 AB v.Föreningen Svenska Tonsättares Internationella Musikbyrå (STIM) upa (C-52/07) the ECJ answered four questions in a preliminary rulings procedure. Relating to my topic, the ECJ stressed at para. 26. that: “Although the fact that an undertaking is in a dominant position cannot deprive it of its right to protect its own commercial interests if they are attacked, and such an undertaking must be conceded the right to take such reasonable steps as it deems appropriate to protect those interests, such behaviour cannot be accepted if its purpose is specifically to strengthen that dominant position and abuse it …“.