The Polish Competition Act - A Year After Substantial Reform

A year has passed since major amendments to Polish Competition Law came into force on 18 January 2015 ("the Amendment"). The reform introduced significant changes, not only to the merger control regime, but also in the area of antimonopoly practices (anti-competitive agreements and abuse of a dominant position).

It is accordingly about time that we provide a summary of the effects of the Amendment's application by the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection (the "OCCP").

Merger control    

The Amendment introduced a two-stage procedure in merger control cases. Concentrations that do not raise competition concerns should now be cleared within a month from submission of the complete notification in a stage one procedure ("Phase I").