The Supreme Administrative Court (NSS – Nejvyšší správní soud) has remanded to the court the CZK 22.13 million fine imposed on the Kaufland chain by the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) in 2013. The SAC returned the case to the Regional Court in Brno, which annulled the fine in 2020. The decision is available on the court’s official bulletin board. This is the second time that the NSS has overturned the decision of the regional court in the same case.
According to the antitrust authority, Kaufland violated the Act on Significant Market Power when it negotiated payment terms longer than 30 days with more than half of its suppliers of agricultural and food products and made payments in this way.
The Office also found other errors in the company’s practices. The chain negotiated with 95 per cent of its suppliers of agricultural and food products to pay a fee of 4 per cent of the receivable in addition to the costs of processing the receivable in the event of an assignment of the receivable to third parties.
Kaufland had to pay a fine of CZK 22,130,000 in 2013, when the first instance decision was upheld by the then chairman Petr Rafaj.
Kaufland challenged the decision of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection by filing a lawsuit with the Regional Court in Brno, which annulled the fine in 2016. The authority defended itself by filing a cassation complaint with the Supreme Administrative Court, which upheld the appeal and overturned the lower court’s judgment.
The Regional Court took up the case again and again annulled the fine in 2020. The Office again challenged the decision with a cassation complaint to the Supreme Administrative Court and succeeded again.
The Regional Court will now take up the case for a third time, taking into account the legal opinion of the NSS.
Source: CTK
