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OFFICE OF COMPETITION AND CONSUMER PROTECTION
Department of International Relations and Communication
PRESIDENT OF UOKIK ON THE ICN FORUM
The ninth annual conference of the International Competition Network (ICN) was held
in Istanbul on 27-29 April this year.
[Warsaw, 17 May 2010] Created in New York in 2001, the International Competition Network is a
platform for cooperation and exchange of experiences of competition institutions and authorities,
enriched with the participation of non-governmental advisors (representatives of business circles,
consumer associations, scholars, lawyers and economists). It is a specialised organisation of informal
nature. Over the last 7 years, the number of members increased from 16 to 104 authorities of
competition protection (from 92 jurisdictions). Its main goal is to stimulate practical actions to
enhance more efficient formation and enforcement of antitrust law at international level. By
strengthening convergence and cooperation, the Network guarantees complex and global approach
towards the issues of competition protection, regardless of differences in legislations of particular
countries. It is very important in the context of globalisation and development of world economy
which cause that threats to competition cross national borders and counteracting them requires
cooperation of particular governments.
The organization takes all actions and makes decisions on the principle of consensus; works are
conducted in working groups by means of teleconferences, seminars or exchanging emails. Within the
ICN a number of practical documents were developed in the form of recommendations, best
practices, guidelines and handbooks which serve as inspiration for member organizations to
strengthen the national competition law and improve methods for detecting and combating
competition-restricting practices.
Each year the members meet at conferences. This year, the ninth conference of the ICN was held in
Turkey with participation of heads of the offices for competition protection from all over the world,
including the President of UOKiK, Mrs Małgorzata Krasnodębska-Tomkiel. Final reports of all five
working groups of the ICN: on cartels, concentrations, unilateral market practices, effectiveness of the
competition authorities and competition advocacy, were presented on the conference. Moreover,
each group presented its own action plan for the nearest future as well as long-term strategic plans.
During the conference the Turkish government presented also so called special project - report on
the analysis of interaction of competition policy and other public policies.
President of the Office, Małgorzata Krasnodębska-Tomkiel, as a moderator, chaired the discussion
during the session on enhancing efficiency of competition authorities. The basis for discussion
provided the report on Strategic planning and prioritization prepared by Agency Effectiveness Group.
The President of UOKiK, together with the panellists, Mrs. Maria Coppola from the US Federal Trade
Commission, Mr. David Lewis, former chairman of the ICN Steering Committee, and professor
OFFICE OF COMPETITION AND CONSUMER PROTECTION
Department of International Relations and Communication
Vicente Bagnoli from the McKenzie University, discussed the factors affecting the capacity of
competition authorities to achieve their goals in an efficient and effective way. Participants of the
discussion agreed that one of these factors is the development of clear mission focused on objectives
and consistent with the office competencies followed by the strategy for implementation of the
competition policy. Due to legal, institutional, political and financial limitations, processes of strategic
planning vary in particular countries. In some countries this is only an internal process, while in
others, it also involves experts from external institutions. Many agencies, including UOKiK pay
attention to the way the strategy is perceived by the society. Therefore, communication issues
constitute a significant part of this planning and work organisation.
It should be reminded that the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection is responsible for
developing and implementing the governmental Competition Policy for 2008-2010 whose main goal is
to create, develop and protect competition, and thus improving the efficiency of the national economy.
According to the document, one of the main UOKiK’s priorities is to continue actions supporting
competition in regulated sectors – energy, electronic communication and transport, as well as further
works on liberalisation in access to self-employment.
All conference materials are available at:
http://www.icn-istanbul.org/submenu/materials.aspx
Additional information:
Marta Skrobisz, Chief Expert
Department of International Relations and
Communication
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa
Tel.: (+48 22) 55 60 311
Fax: (+48 22) 826 11 86
E-mail [email protected]
Additional information for the media:
Małgorzata Cieloch, Spokesperson for UOKiK
Department of International Relations and
Communication
Pl. Powstańców Warszawy 1, 00-950 Warszawa
Tel.: (+48 22) 827 28 92, 55 60 106, 55 60 430
Fax: (+48 22) 826 11 86
E-mail [email protected]