The Czech Office for the Protection of Competition has imposed fines exceeding 11 million crowns on Taxi Praha s.r.o. and FIX, spol. s r.o. for their involvement in a cartel agreement concerning taxi services to and from Václav Havel Airport in Prague. The decision is not yet final, as the parties involved have filed an appeal.

This case is a re-examination, as the chairman of the authority annulled a previous first-instance decision in December 2024, stating that the authority needed to better justify whether the case involved prohibited agreements in a narrow sense or merely collusion.

During the administrative proceedings, the authority demonstrated that the competitors coordinated their business activities from 2019 to 2021 by entering into a prohibited agreement. They aligned their service offerings, coordinated pricing for passengers and drivers, and exchanged sensitive business information. Their collaboration extended to unifying their visual presentation, including websites, vehicle branding, and mobile applications, with the aim of eliminating competition between them.

Taxi Praha and FIX operated taxi services at Václav Havel Airport based on a tender conducted by Prague Airport in 2016. The two selected suppliers were expected to provide services from 2017 to 2021, with the contract later extended to 2023. However, instead of fostering competition, the selected suppliers engaged in practices that sought to completely eliminate competition between them.

In calculating the fines, the authority followed its standard methodology for determining penalties for violations of competition law. The parties did not receive any discounts for settlement or the implementation of a compliance program, as these benefits were forfeited due to the appeals filed against the original decision. The final penalties amount to 10,124,000 crowns for FIX and 950,000 crowns for Taxi Praha.