A panel chaired by the President of UOKiK awarded authors of master theses devoted to competition protection. The winner received a prize of PLN 5 thousand gross. Moreover, four distinctions were handed in.

One of the priorities of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection is raising the awareness of all market participants, also within the scope of the role and impact of antitrust regulations on economic life. In 2008, in order to promote these issues among students, UOKiK established awards for the best master thesis devoted to competition protection. The competition’s aim was to encourage students to develop scientific and professional interests in this domain.

35 master theses were submitted to the Office. They concerned various subjects - state aid, issues bordering economy and antitrust law, but also concrete proceedings against enterprises breaching competition law provisions. The panel of jurors chaired by Małgorzata Krasnodębska-Tomkiel, the President of UOKiK, chose the winners. The panel’s members were persons of distinguished knowledge and experience in the field of law and economy. In their assessment, the jurors paid particular attention to the quality of the content and the form of the theses, as well as innovative approach to the matter under discussion.

The most votes were cast on Ms Anna Kobus’ master thesis entitled: The rules of recovery of unlawfully granted aid: implementation of the Commission’s negative decisions in Poland and in Germany, written under the supervision of professor Bożena Popowska at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. The winner received the prize of PLN 5 thousand gross.

Due to the very high level of the submitted theses, the jury awarded four distinctions to: Katarzyna Bojarojć for a thesis entitled: The ne bis in idem rule and its application in Community competition legislation, Tomasz Kozieł for a thesis on Private enforcement in Community cartel legislation. Inferences between the compensative and preventive function of damage claims, Łukasz Koseski for his work A new operator’s entrance in a oligopolistic mobile phone market, taking into account transportation costs and Piotr Sitarek for his thesis on Intellectual property law and competition law in the legal system of the European Union and the United States of America. The awarded students received a yearly subscription of the electronic edition of the Gazeta Prawna newspaper, the media patron of the competition.

The partners of the first edition of the competition were: the European Law Students’ Association ELSA Poland, and the International Association of Students in Economics & Management - AISEC Poland.

Additional information:
Małgorzata Cieloch, Spokesperson for UOKiK
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warsaw, Poland
Tel. (+48 22) 827 28 92, 55 60 106, 55 60 430
faks (+48 22) 826 11 86
E-mail: mcieloch@uokik.gov.pl