At the end of September, the Czech Office for the Protection of
Competition ("Office") concluded
proceedings against Z - Trade s.r.o. ("Z -
Trade"), a luxury candle distributor who was found to
have breached Czech and EU competition law by vertically setting
prices of its products. Z - Trade received a fine of close to CZK
18 million CZK (approx. EUR 730,000). Notably however, for the
first time ever the Office took into account the existence of an
internal compliance program and decided to reduce the fine.
The investigation into Z - Trade found that the company had over
a period of at least seven years been entering into agreements with
subsequent distributors to set minimum retail prices for candles
and "aroma products" which it supplies to them.
Cooperation with Z - Trade was made conditional upon accepting
these agreements and the minimum prices were regularly monitored by
the company. In several cases, Z - Trade had terminated cooperation
with its business
