Brno, November 5, 2025 — The head of the Czech Competition Authority (ÚOHS), Petr Mlsna, has announced plans to reintroduce amendments to the national competition law, saying that the agency must be equipped to address challenges posed by digital platforms, algorithms, and data-driven markets.
Speaking at the 18th St Martin’s Conference on Competition Law in Brno, Mlsna said the ÚOHS had refined the draft reform bill in response to industry and expert feedback received over the past year, to ensure that the new provisions become “truly effective tools of modern competition enforcement.”
The proposal — which failed to pass in the previous parliamentary session despite unanimous government support — would introduce a new market investigation tool, a call-in system for mergers below notification thresholds, and personal liability for managers involved in anti-competitive conduct.
“Dynamic technological development poses unprecedented challenges for competition authorities,” Mlsna said. “Algorithms can coordinate conduct deep in virtual space, and digital ecosystems are reshaping competition in ways our traditional tools were never designed to address.”
While key elements of last year’s bill stalled, ÚOHS succeeded in securing new powers to access data collected by other state regulators through amendments to the Price Act. The change allows the authority to obtain pricing and market data directly from sectoral bodies — a development Mlsna called “an important first step” toward better-informed, evidence-based enforcement.
Building capacity
The authority has since expanded its economic capacity by establishing a Chief Economist’s Office, which is already supporting its newly launched sector inquiry into mobile telecommunications — the first major study to leverage inter-agency data sharing. The inquiry, conducted with the Czech Telecommunications Office (ČTÚ), will examine mobile pricing, bundling, and non-public offers between 2018 and 2025.
The conference, one of Central Europe’s key antitrust events, gathered senior officials from Slovakia, Romania, Slovenia, Portugal, and the European Commission. Mlsna also announced that Prague will host the 2026 International Competition Network (ICN) Conference on Unilateral Conduct, coinciding with the ÚOHS’s 35th anniversary.
