The Czech Supreme Administrative Court (NSS) recently upheld a decision by the Czech Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) from 2023, which found that the Association of Language Schools had breached competition law by establishing minimum acceptable prices for language instruction services in public procurement.

This ruling was initially confirmed by the Regional Court in Brno at the end of 2024, and the NSS agreed with its conclusions. The Association, representing around 30 language schools, publicly announced and enforced minimum pricing among its members while advocating for these prices with public procurement authorities.

The NSS confirmed that the Association's actions significantly restricted competition among its members and affected the competitive landscape for language education services in the Czech Republic. The Association had been setting these prices since at least the second half of 2017, with updates to the rates over the years. For instance, in 2018, members bidding for public contracts were required to charge at least 334 CZK per hour, which increased to 368 CZK the following year.

The NSS upheld all key findings of the ÚOHS, noting that the Association failed to present new arguments in its appeal. The NSS remarked that the appeal was largely a reiteration of previous claims without addressing the Regional Court's findings.

This case marked the first instance where the ÚOHS imposed a fine on an association based on the turnover of its members for the last completed accounting period. However, the head of the ÚOHS later returned the decision regarding the fine for reconsideration due to the shortened duration of the infringement. The final penalty amounted to 5.2 million CZK. The lawsuit currently under judicial review did not contest the fine itself but focused solely on the ruling of the infringement. A separate lawsuit against the fine was recently dismissed by the Regional Court in Brno, which confirmed that the imposition of the fine was lawful.