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Annual report of the Czech Competition Office 2026

We would like to share with you an overview of the most important findings from the newly published 2025 Annual Report of the Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS). The past year was marked by record sanctions, increased protection of competition in sensitive sectors, and the introduction of new technological tools.

The Pharmacy Market

Last year, the Office intensively focused on the availability of pharmacy services, taking a stance against legislative efforts to restrict the establishment of new pharmacies (e.g., through minimum distance requirements). It stated that although such restrictions exist in some European countries, the proposed amendment does not address the primary problem of the pharmacy market, which is the low motivation for entrepreneurs to open pharmacies in more remote areas. According to the Office, the current dense network of pharmacies is key to providing better quality services for patients.

The Office also mentioned that the so-called IPI measure came into effect last year, leading to stricter assessments and the potential exclusion of Chinese entities from public healthcare contracts. The goal is to level the playing field within the EU and limit anti-competitive influence from third countries.

Pricing Policy and Payment Morale

Inspections in the area of vertical agreements and unfair trading practices remain a priority. The Office continues to penalize distributors who dictate minimum prices to their buyers. Large fines were imposed, for example, on distributors of children’s goods, pet food, and electrical appliances.

In connection with the abuse of significant market power, the Office imposed a fine of CZK 6 million on the Staropramen brewery for applying invoice maturity periods longer than 30 days in its business relations. As an entrepreneur in the agricultural and food sector, Staropramen is subject to stricter regulation under the Act on Significant Market Power, which strictly limits the maturity of liabilities for these business entities (this stricter regime applies only to a specific group of entities – buyers with so-called significant market power who purchase food and agricultural products). This fine is thus the highest sanction imposed by the Office to date on a company from the agricultural and food sector.

Digital Openness for Job Advertisers

The Office also intervened against the dominant position of the Alma Career group (operator of the Jobs.cz and Prace.czportals), which committed to adopting specific measures against the restriction of competition. The company must open its interfaces (APIs) free of charge so that competing and corporate recruitment systems can effectively connect to them, thereby reducing advertisers’ dependence on a single supplier of these services.

Public Procurement and Competition

In 2025, within the framework of competition protection, the Office handed out the highest fines in the last 10 years – totaling almost half a billion crowns. The vast majority of this was due to secret agreements between competitors. Among the biggest cases resonating in the report was a large-scale cartel of construction companies in contracts for the Railway Administration, and agreements among meal voucher issuers vis-à-vis retail chains. Last year was also record-breaking with regard to merger control, recording the highest number of cases since 2004.

The Chairman of the Office also summarized that the Office has recently been facing many complex disputes, which are caused by overly complicated and poor-quality tender conditions. He therefore appealed to contracting authorities to prepare projects carefully and with sufficient expertise.

Over the past year, the Office launched a new system for anonymous and confidential reporting (whistleblowing) of anti-competitive conduct. It is also preparing a new draft amendment to the Act on the Protection of Competition, which incorporates comments from the professional public as well as experience from abroad. This should include, for example, a new competition tool for interventions in markets where competition fails, the possibility of punishing specific natural persons—especially managers—for anti-competitive conduct, and the ability to request a review of mergers in justified cases that do not ordinarily require the Office’s approval.

What to Watch in 2026?

The Office has launched sector inquiries in the areas of mobile telecommunications and charging stations for electric vehicles. It can be expected that the conclusions of these inquiries will influence regulation in these sectors.

The Annual Report clearly shows that the Office continues to tighten sanctions for anti-competitive conduct. The Office itself also pointed out that, although its activities in the field of public procurement receive a lot of media attention, it actually intervenes in only about 2-3% of all public contracts awarded in the Czech Republic.

If this information could be useful to your colleagues, we would be pleased if you shared this email with them.

Should you have any questions regarding the above, we remain gladly at your disposal.

Igor Pieš partner

igor@kastnerpies.cz