A Significant Amendment To The Czech Significant Market Power Act

An amendment to the Czech Significant Market Power Act (the "SMP Act"), which should harmonise Czech law with the EU directive on unfair business practices (the "Directive"), was recently signed by the President and will become effective as of 1 January 2023. Unfortunately, the Czech legislators have adopted a unique interpretation of the Directive and made additional modifications. Hence, the Czech law governing trade with agricultural products will continue to be singular and will now extend from the retail level to the whole supply chain.

A fundamental issue since the SMP Act came into force in 2010 has been the personal scope of its application. The regulator in this area, the Office for the Protection of Competition (the "Office"), has long interpreted the SMP Act as being applicable to any customer purchasing food for the purpose of resale whose annual turnover for the sale of food and related services exceeded CZK 5bln in the Czech Republic. This has been