The Application of EU Competition Law in Poland

Abstract

EU competition law has been applied in the Republic of Poland since 1 May 2004. During the 12 years of its application there has been a low number of decisions of the Polish Competition Authority where Article 101 or 102 TFEU had been actually applied. The main underlying reason for this restrictive approach remains either a very narrow definition of the criteria conditioning the application of the EU competition rules adopted by the Polish Competition Authority or, possibly, the lack of reference to these criteria in circumstances that should imply the application of EU law. The Polish Competition Authority rarely identifies the effect on trade between Member States under Article 3 of Regulation 1/2003. The Competition Courts had not yet questioned this practice; therefore it is probably up to the European Commission to signal the need for change of this pattern of using Article 3 of Regulation 1/2003. On the other hand the position taken by the CJEU in the case Tele 2 does not encourage the Polish authorities to apply EU competition law in its full scope either. The text of this chapter is divided into two parts. The first part presents an overview of decisions of the Polish Competition Authority in which an effect on trade between Member States has been identified. The second part presents the application of Regulation 1/2003 in the practice of the Polish Competition Authority and the Polish courts when such an effect has been identified in terms of practical cooperation between different levels of authorities within European Competition Network, with the special focus on the Tele 2 case.