| | 15/2022 Judgment of the first instance court regarding the appeal of Agora S.A. from the decision of the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection prohibiting the concentration consisting in the takeover by Agora S.A. control over Eurozet Sp. z o.o.
Regulatory filing
Management Board of Agora S.A. with its registered office in Warsaw ("Agora", "Company"), with reference to the current report 4/2021 of 8 February 2021, hereby informs that the District Court in Warsaw - Competition and Consumer Protection Court ("Court"), after conducting proceedings on the appeal of the Company, on 12 May 2022, announced a judgment amending in its entirety the decision of the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (“President of UOKiK”) of 7 January 2021, prohibiting Agora from taking control over Eurozet Sp. z o.o. ("Decision").
The Decision was changed by the Court in such a way that it expressed unconditional consent to the takeover of Eurozet sp.z o.o. by Agora ("Transaction").
The oral reasons for the ruling presented today show that the Court, taking into account the arguments contained in Agora's appeal, concluded that the Transaction would not significantly restrict competition on the market.
The Court emphasized that the condition for issuing a decision prohibiting a concentration is to demonstrate a high probability of restriction of competition resulting directly from the concentration.
In the opinion of the Court, the hypothetical scenarios of the coordination activities of entrepreneurs presented in the Decision of the President of UOKiK, which may significantly restrict competition, are speculative and are not highly likely. In the opinion of the Court, they are not based on the market realities and economic conditions established in the course of evidence proceedings.
Moreover, the Court established that the evidence proceedings did not demonstrate the direct impact of the Transaction on such a change in market conditions that would lead to a high probability of giving up competition between competitors for mutual coordination and tacit collusion. The conducted evidence also did not confirm the hypothesis about the possible marginalization of competitors.
The judgment is not final and the parties may appeal against it within two weeks of receiving the written justification for the judgment.
Legal basis: Art. 17 sec. 1 of Regulation (EU) No 596/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 April 2014 on market abuse (market abuse regulation) and repealing Directive 2003/6/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and Commission Directive 2003/124/EC, 2003/125/EC and 2004/72/EC - confidential information. | |
