On 27 September 2012, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (UOKiK) hosted, in cooperation with the Warsaw School of Economics, the II International Competition Law Forum.

This international event was organized by the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection for the second time. Representatives of the antimonopoly authorities and international organizations, lawyers, entrepreneurs and business circles touched upon the subject of development and application of competition law and the necessity to seek the best legal and institutional instruments in counteracting prohibited agreements, to the benefit of all market participants.

How to detect cartels efficiently and respect the rights of undertakings at the same time? What are the latest trends of competition protection authorities in fining policy? How to efficiently present cases in the court proceedings in antimonopoly decisions? – these were the main topics raised during the Forum.

The conference was opened by Mrs Małgorzata Krasnodębska-Tomkiel, President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, who highlighted the relevance of the issues which would be discussed during the event, especially in the context of the ongoing works on the amendment of the Polish Competition Law. Subsequently, Mr Joaquin Almunia, the Vice-President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Competition, gave his speech in which he underlined the importance of international cooperation especially in the era of globalization. He emphasized that during this time, the European Union must undertake cooperation, so as to create one well functioning market. Moreover, Mr. Almunia stressed that the decisions made by national authorities have a great impact on the UE market. The national antimonopoly authorities should therefore act as leaders in this process of competition protection, as it is their duty to eliminate these prohibited conducts of undertakings which may affect the Single Market. Furthermore, during the official welcome, Mr Eduardo Perez Motta, President of the Mexican Federal Competition Commission and Chair of the International Competition Network, offered his views on what competition agencies and the International Competition Network can do to promote competition principles in the context of the global financial crisis.

The first panel focused on procedural fairness and its observance by competition protection authorities. Participants took into consideration the principles concerning the protection of interests of undertakings in the course of inspections aimed at detecting and eliminating cartels by antimonopoly authorities. During the second session, the speakers and the guests debated on the nature and the deterrent effect of fines. Another issue under discussion in the third panel was the effective cooperation between the competition protection authorities and representatives of judiciary, which is also a part of a project being carried out by UOKiK within the International Competition Network.

All materials, including the agenda of the event, the list of the speakers, the presentations and the video recording of the conference will be available shortly here.