The Constitutional Court upheld a five million fine for the Student Agency
The Constitutional Court rejected the Student Agency’s complaint against a five million fine from the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS). The company abused its dominant position on the Prague-Brno line. The company has not previously filed lawsuits against fines at the Regional Court in Brno and the Supreme Administrative Court. The Student Agency does not agree with the court’s verdict, on the contrary, Asiana is welcome. He demands compensation of 20 million crowns from the competitor.
The Constitutional Court rejected the complaint without a public hearing at the end of July as manifestly unfounded. He recalled that the legality of the Office’s decision had already been reviewed by previous courts. “In the case under review, the Constitutional Court did not find any unconstitutional deficits,” he said in its ruling.
The case concerns the situation on the market in 2007 and 2008. Student Agency reduces the prices of credit tickets for one-way transport to 50 crowns, later it introduced the price of 95 crowns. According to the Office, the purpose of the conduct was to exclude the competing transport company Asiana from the market. In this context, the Office emphasized that it did not fine the Student Agency at low prices, but precisely for their targeted use to push competition out of the market.
The company does not agree with the Constitutional Court’s verdict and claims that it never ran on the line below cost. “The line was profitable all the time, as was the Student Agency, and we never went under competition with the prices. If this was nevertheless evaluated as an abuse of a dominant position, it is a precedent for the Office to name the actions of Czech Railways on the Prague – Ostrava route in the same way after the arrival of RegioJet and competing carriers, “said company spokesman Aleš Ondrůj.
According to him, the company expects that “ÚOHS will finally conclude this clear abuse of ČD’s dominant position and sub-cost prices with the same result”.
The Antimonopoly Office originally imposed a fine of over six million crowns on the Student Agency, which it subsequently reduced. The case was then on the table of the Regional Court in Brno. He first canceled the fine, but confirmed it last September after the Office upheld the Supreme Administrative Court. After the company’s dismissal, he ruled in favor of the antitrust authority.
Following the case, the key issue was to define the market under assessment. The decision of the Office was based on the assertion that at the time of the tort, there was a separate market for bus transport on the line and that train transport was a different market. The Regional Court in Brno rejected this argument in its first decision and ruled in favor of the Student Agency. But last year he changed his position.
Asiana welcomed the Constitutional Court’s verdict. According to the company’s co-owner Šárka Litvinová, it is reaffirmed that the Student Agency acted as a predator and in violation of the law and in violation of good morals. “We are not the only ones who have paid for this carrier’s aggressive actions. But we are one of the few who are satisfied because we were not afraid to defend ourselves and go to court. Now it remains to assess the damage caused to us by his illegal practices Radim Jančura (owner of the Student Agency). The amount we are judging will reach 20 million crowns, “said Litvinová.