Proposed amendments to the Act on competition and consumer protection have been already prepared. All interested persons can submit their suggestions. The document has been made available at https://uokik.gov.pl/

We encourage all the interested persons to familiarize with the draft amendment and submit any suggestions by 5th June, also at the following address: 
[SCODE]bm93ZWxpemFjamFAdW9raWsuZ292LnBs[ECODE].

Facilitating the merger control system, effective detection of prohibited agreements, modification of the leniency programme – these are the essential changes proposed by UOKiK to the Act on competition and consumer protection. Previous experiences of the Office’s cooperation with business entities under conducted antimonopoly proceedings and market analyses as well as following the practice of foreign authorities concerning our operations in the international arena have inspired UOKiK to commence works on the amendment to the antimonopoly law. The works on the proposals to the draft amendment were accomplished last days. The document is available at the Office’s website. We encourage all the interested persons to familiarize with the draft amendment and submit any suggestions by 5thJune, also at the following address: e-mail [SCODE]bm93ZWxpemFjamFAdW9raWsuZ292LnBs[ECODE]

Basic draft proposals amending the Act are inter alia aimed at adjustment of time limits for considering cases in merger control. At present, proceedings shall be concluded within two months regardless of its complexity (time allowed for awaiting undertakings’ responses is not included). Both experiences of UOKiK and signals of undertakings clearly indicate this time limit proves too long for non-complex transactions and too short to examine cases of high complexity. For this reason, the concept of two-phase procedure seems to be grounded. Transactions raising no doubts of the Office as regards the potential restriction of competition, should be concluded within 30 days. More complex cases would be reviewed within four months. This would improve the preditability of date for decision issuance which would allow undertakings to adjust their business operations to it.

The main objective of the draft amendment is the enforcement of instruments strengthening the Polish system of competition and consumer protection. To confront the proposed changes with opinions of interested parties, the Office undertook many informative actions on the essential trends of the changes.

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Another novelty to be introduced is the so called competition concern. The concept means that during pending proceedings in complex cases and such where giving clearance to transaction proves impossible, the Office will inform undertaking on any reservations regarding the transaction under scrutiny. As a consequence, still at the stage of pending proceedings, they find the way of case solving and potential impact of concentration on the market, as diagnosed by the Office. Thus undertakings will have an opportunity to state their view prior to issuance of the decision by the authority.

Simultaneously, with respect to granting the conditional consent, the Office submitted a proposal not to disclose a part of decision regarding the time allowed for fulfillment of the imposed condition. This change results from requests of undertakings, who repeatedly empasized the fact that providing public with information on the deadline for divesting control over a dependent undertaking, or part of its assets, does significantly lower the negotiating position of such seller, and consequently may cause price reduction.

Numerous proposals of UOKiK have as their object increasing the efficiency of eliminating prohibited agreements. The novelty introduced will be the concept of settlements.The Office could offer this option whenever the circumstamces of a given case provide for this solution. An undertaking will be allowed to benefit from it in turn for receiving a 10% fine reduction. This means the proceedings will be accelerated considerably compared to the ordinary procedure, which entails quicker elimination of competition-restricting practice from the market. Regarding the said instruments, the Polish laws will benefit from similar regulations existing in antimonopoly law systems of particular EU Member States and the European Commission. Another measure is the concept of remedies. In the decision concluding proceedings, the President of UOKiK will have a chance to indicate to an undertaking what measures must be taken to eliminate the impacts of infringement or discontinue the prohibited practice. This will allow for effective restoration of competition.

Furthermore, the Office proposes changes aimed at raising interest of undertakings as regards the leniency programme, which will contribute to a better detection of prohibited agreements. The so called leniency plus institution will enable undertakings to obtain even more significant fine reductions for participation in anti-competitive agreement as long as they provide the authority with information on other undetected agreements.

Another preventative measure against anti-competitive practices is introduction of natural persons’ liability in the event of infringement of antimonopoly law by them. These sanctions will perform both represive and preventative functions. Moreover, they will provide the Office with access to the new source of information on  market irregularities, under the leniency programme also from natural persons, who similarly to undertakings in cases concerning prohibited agreements, will have an opportunity to collaborate with UOKiK and obtain their fine reduction in turn. Other amendments will regard, among others, enhancing the effectiveness of performed inspections with search as well as specifying legal prerequisites for fixing the amount of fines.

The main objective of the draft amendment is the enforcement of instruments strengthening the Polish system of competition and consumer protection. To confront the proposed changes with opinions of interested parties, the Office undertook many informative actions on the essential trends of the changes. At present, we encourage you to follow the assumptions, including a detailed description of subsequent proposals. Additionally, you may submit any suggestions and comments in this respect at [SCODE]bm93ZWxpemFjamFAdW9raWsuZ292LnBs[ECODE].

Additional information for the media:
Małgorzata Cieloch, Spokesperson for UOKiK
Department of International Relations and Communication
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa
Phone: +48 22 55 60 106
Fax: +48 22 826 11 86
E-mail: [SCODE]bWFsZ29yemF0YS5jaWVsb2NoQHVva2lrLmdvdi5wbA==[ECODE]