The main speaker of the seminar organised by CARS in June 2017 – Marcin Kolasiński – devoted his paper to the answer of the question: ‘Do ‘unilateral agreements’ which restrict competition actually exist? The speaker presented the thesis of his – Working Paper (No 1) published by CARS few months before. In WP 1 Marcin Kolasiński pointed that such view have been presented many times by the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) and – in his opinion – such practice of the President of UOKiK constitutes an infringement of the Competition and Consumer Protection Act as well as of Administrative Proceedings Code. The Kolasinski’s view was shared by the 1st co-speaker, Professor Agata Jurkowska-Gomułka.
The opposite view was presented by the 2nd co-speaker, Professor Grzegorz Materna. In the lively discussion, which took part afterwards, the seminar participants stressed a need to reconcile of two values – the right of the UOKiK President to provide efficient proceedings and the necessity to compliance with rules of the Competition and Consumer Protection Act and the Administrative Proceedings Code. In this context, a concept of so-called selective application of competition law by the UOKiK President was considered. It was argued, whether such selection may mean right to institute and conduct proceedings only in cases of certain important agreements and whether the UOKiK President may choose only one agreement’s party, which will be accused to undertake illegal behaviours.
Programme
