Concentration between competitors

Control of mergers and acquisitions affecting competition.

In Czechia, the authorisation of mergers or acquisitions of competitors on the market that could affect competition (‘concentrations between competitors’) is entrusted to the Office for the Protection of Competition (the ‘Office’), unless an operation of this sort is of such transnational significance that it requires the European Commission’s supervision. Specifically, Czech law defines a concentration between competitors in particular as:

1. the merger of two or more competitors which had previously been operating autonomously in the market;
2. the acquisition of the opportunity to directly or indirectly control another competitor, or part thereof, in particular by acquiring securities of a participating nature, shareholdings, or member shares, or contractually;
3. the establishment of a competitor who is jointly controlled by multiple competitors and who, over an extended period, performs all the functions of an autonomous economic unit.

Competitors are defined as individuals and legal entities, their associations, the associations of such associations and other forms of groupings, even if these associations and groupings are not legal entities, provided that they participate in or, through their activities, are able to influence competition, even if they are not businesses.

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