• Project title: Complex analysis of decisions of the President of the Office of Consumer and Competition Protection (UOKiK) and judgments of courts in cases of appeals against decisions of UOKiK related to fines imposed by the UOKiK President in proceedings on competition restricting practices.
  • Type of project: commissioned by Office of Consumer and Competition Protection
  • Project coordinators: prof. Tadeusz Skoczny and Maciej Bernatt, PhD
  • Execution time: November 2015 – June 2016

Since November 2, 2015 the research project Complex analysis of decisions issued by the UOKiK President and judgements spoken by the courts in cases of appeals against decisions of UOKiK on fines imposed by the UOKiK President in proceedings on practices restricting competition has been started. The project encompasses the analysis of all judgments spoken in last three years in cases of practices restricting competition at least by the Court of Consumer and Competition Protection and decisions preceding them taken by UOKiK in order to answer the following questions:

1) what are the most common reasons for the change of fines, previously imposed by the UOKiK President, by courts

2) what circumstances other than those specified in the Polish Competition and Consumer Protection Act (PCCPA) and Clarifications of the UOKiK President in the matter of imposing fines for competition restricting practices should be taken into account, according to the courts, while imposing fines

3) whether it is possible to deduct from the courts’ jurisprudence any regularity concerning the methodology of measuring fines (setting importance of premises) and if yes, what is this methodology

4) whether there are any discrepancies (and if yes, what are they) in the attitude towards the fines imposed by the UOKiK President between the jurisprudence of different panels of judges in the same court and courts of different instances, e.g. SOKiK (Court of Competition and Consumer Protection), Court of Appeal in Warsaw and alternatively the Supreme Court (analysis of judgments changing or upholding fines imposed by the UOKiK President).

Currently the project is in its initial phase of selecting decisions and jurisprudence relevant for the analysis.

CARS

Centre for Antitrust and Regulatory Studies,
University of Warsaw, Faculty of Management

PL - 02-678 Warsaw, 1/3 Szturmowa St.
website: www.cars.wz.uw.edu.pl (cars English site)