News

On July 23, 2014, Global Competition Review has published an article on the potential impact of the current conflict situation in Ukraine on the pending investigation of the European Commission against the Russian Gazprom on the alleged charge of an abuse of dominance. Comments on this issue were requested from several lawyers from the EU and Russia, among them from Jarosław Sroczyński. Mr. Sroczyński emphasized the need to avoid politicization and partiality in competition cases, including the Gazprom case, irrespective of the political evaluation of the role of Russia in the Ukrainian crisis and the activities of the pro-Russian lobby in the European Union itself. See

On June 19-21, 2014, ThomsonReuters and Jaguar Land Rover as a sponsor organized an Authors’ Retreat in Gibraltar, for authors of The European Lawyer Reference Series. Among the participants was Jarosław Sroczyński, who cooperates with the publisher for several years, co-authoring the Merger Control Series. One of the special points of the Retreat was the dinner at St Michael’s Cave, hosted by the Chief Minister Fabian Picardo.
During the event, the participants had the opportunity to the talk about the planned publications but could also admire the scenery and panoramic views of Gibraltar. A short video from the event is available at: vimeo.com/98780314

Jarosław Sroczyński has commented the amendment of the Polish competition law for the Global Competition Review. The aim of the new law, adopted by the Parliament on May 30, 2014, is to enable the OCCP to be more effective and quick in the elimination of illegal, anticompetitive practices. The amendment has also upgraded the leniency program, introducing a leniency-plus system. The Law also introduces fines for individuals, remedies for dominant violators, settlements with the OCCP and a two-phase merger control system.

On May 13, 2014 Jarosław Sroczyński delivered a lecture in Warsaw for the participants of the workshop on Unfair Competition Law. The lecture entitled „Charging ‘slot allowances’ as an act of unfair competition” was devoted to a qualification as so-called “slot allowances” of retroactive rebates applied in business relations between network sellers and their suppliers.

A book „40th Annual Conference on International Antitrust Law & Policy: Fordham Competition Law 2013”, edited by Prof. Barry Hawk, was published in April 2014 by The Juris Publishing Inc. The book is a post-conference collection of articles and records of discussions taking place during the international conference of the Fordham Competition Law Institute in New York in September 2013. At that conference, J. Sroczynski presented a paper on „Dominance, Collectivism and Behaviorism: New Perspectives?”, now published as an article, along with the discussion transcript of the panel „Future of Unilateral Enforcement and Policy”.

Artykul_RP_R_MarkiewiczOn April 23, 2014, “Rzeczpospolita” published a comment of Prof. Ryszard Markiewicz, regarding the illegality under EU law of downloading for personal use recordings and videos placed in the internet without the consent of the rightholder. The comment can be accessed at: prawo.rp.pl/artykul/756571,1104013.html

On April 11-12, 2014 a Plenary Assembly of the Conference of Rectors of the Polish Academic Schools has taken place in the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. Among guests attending this event, including the Prime Minister Donald Tusk and representatives of science and culture, was Prof. Ryszard Markiewicz. During the session on science issues, he delivered the lecture entitled ”Intellectual property law in the context of ”affranchisement” of scientists and the open science”.