Polish Supreme Court Comments On Anti-Competitive Vertical Agreements

The Supreme Court recently explained that the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection (OCCP) does not have to identify all of the parties to anti-competitive vertical agreements in decisions issued in such cases.

Facts

The case started with the OCCP's decision regarding an anti-competitive agreement concluded on the wholesale watches market. The OCCP stated that wholesaler Anyro & Co and cooperating retail distributors fixed minimal resale prices, which were applied by the latter to watches sold online and in bricks-and-mortar stores. The parties to this resale price maintenance practice had agreed (among other things) that the distributors could not grant clients rebates on the recommended price that were higher than 15%. Further, the retailers had to discuss details of their promotional campaigns with Anyro, which in practice did not allow the retailers to use price cuts as a marketing tool. Disobedient distributors were offered fewer advantages in terms