The Chairman of the Czech Office for the Protection of Competition, Petr Mlsna, has set a new fine for the city of Prague amounting to 1.308 million crowns for violating competition rules concerning a municipal regulation on gambling operations. This decision follows the conclusions of the Regional Court in Brno, which considered a ruling from the Constitutional Court regarding the complex case.

According to current legislation, not only companies but also cities and municipalities can violate competition law. In this instance, the Prague magistrate was found to have disrupted competition in the gambling market by favoring certain competitors who could continue to operate gambling activities at specified locations.

The anti-competitive behavior occurred between December 21, 2018, and December 31, 2020. The duration of this behavior was shorter than previously assessed, which contributed to the new fine determination. Initially, the Office had imposed a penalty of 1,274,000 crowns, which was later increased to 2,402,000 crowns, but this decision was annulled by the Regional Court in Brno.

The Regional Court distinguished between two forms of regulation: targeted regulation of gambling and blanket regulation of live games. It concluded that the targeted regulation was unlawful, while the blanket regulation was not. The Office for the Protection of Competition had to take this conclusion into account in its new decision.

The new ruling indicates that the Prague magistrate erred by implementing regulations that allowed gambling only at specific addresses listed in the municipal regulation. This regulation set locations and times for conducting lotteries and similar games without objective, non-discriminatory, and pre-established criteria for selecting these locations, thereby unlawfully disrupting competition in the gambling market.

Chairman Mlsna emphasized that the Office does not question the right of local authorities to regulate gambling but monitors whether the imposed restrictions are objective and non-discriminatory.