Bratislava, June 18, 2025 — The Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic (PMÚ) has imposed a fine exceeding €60,000 on a waste management business for failing to provide crucial information in an ongoing cartel investigation involving the handling of hazardous medical waste.
According to a press release issued by the authority, the penalty stems from the company’s refusal to grant access to a large volume of email communication—around 500,000 messages—that were deleted shortly before the PMÚ conducted inspections in the sector.
The regulator had requested that the company retrieve the deleted correspondence from a third-party hosting and domain service provider that had backed up the data. The company failed to comply with this request, thereby obstructing the investigation.
PMÚ stressed that the missing emails represent a key source of evidence in assessing suspected anti-competitive agreements between businesses operating in the disposal of medical waste. The fine was set near the upper limit permitted under Slovak competition law due to the seriousness of the obstruction.
The decision, issued on June 6, 2025, is not yet final. The company has the right to appeal.
This enforcement action is part of a broader inquiry by the PMÚ into suspected cartel activity within the medical waste disposal market, an area that has recently come under increased scrutiny for potential violations of competition rules.
