COMPETITION LAW

COMPETITION LAW

Tutor doc. JUDr. Václav Šmejkal Ph.D.

The new LL.M. in competition law programme is focused on the specific competition law in its four main pillars (anticompetitive agreements/cartels; abuse of dominance; merger control; and state aid control). The LL.M. programme aims to cover these issues completely in its basic content in terms of substantive and procedural law and, in addition, to offer an extension to a number of sub-issues of competition law through optional specialisation courses. The legal basis is the competition law of the European Union, the competition law of the Czech Republic, but also, through examples and comparisons, the competition law of other EU Member States and the antitrust law of the USA, including its extensive case law and soft law.

Successful graduates of this LL.M. will find better employment in the private and public sphere, in international institutions and business associations, as well as in academia, corporate education, or the media. Competition law now permeates a range of activities previously outside the market (public authority decision-making, network industries, professional sports, education, culture) and is particularly relevant in the dynamic digital economy dependent on online platforms. The most well-known competition law cases of today affect the general business and consumer public and generate considerable media coverage. The orientation in the given issue, the ability of competition law analysis and argumentation are thus gaining more and more importance and practical application.

A graduate of the LL.M. program must earn a total of at least 90 credits over three semesters to successfully complete the program and be awarded the internationally recognized LL.M. A total of 60 credits are earned during the first two semesters for completion of courses. For the first semester this is 32 credits (3 compulsory courses, 8 credits each, and 2 electives of 4 credits each), and for the second semester 28 credits (2 compulsory courses, 8 credits each, and 3 electives of 4 credits each). The third semester of the study is carried out in the form of distance learning, during which the participant attends an online specialised seminar (in cooperation with the supervisor of their qualification thesis) and produces their written qualification thesis of at least 50 pages of text in English and passes an oral final examination combined with a thesis defence (thus obtaining the remaining 30 credits).

  • Mandatory courses

    Summer Semester:


    Article 101 TFEU, responsible supervisors: doc. JUDr.Michal Petr, Ph.D. and JUDr. M.Jur. Jiří Kindl, Ph.D. 

    The course focuses on the prohibition of anti-competitive agreements, its definition, interpretation, and application in EU law. The course content includes the following topics: introduction to the prohibition of anticompetitive agreements; addressees of EU competition Law; anticompetitive agreements, analysis on real examples, and critical discussion of current developments.  Emphasis is placed in particular on relevant provisions, practice, and case law of the European Union competition law as well as on examples of cartel agreements sanctioned in the Czech Republic. 

    Article 102 TFEU, responsible supervisors: doc. JUDr. Václav Šmejkal, Ph.D., DEA and JUDr. M.Jur. Jiří Kindl, Ph.D. 

    The course focuses on the prohibition of abuse of dominance, its definition, interpretation, and application in EU law. The course content includes the following topics: introduction to the prohibition of abuse of dominant position; relevant market and market power; fundamentals of abuse of dominance; fundamentals of abuse of dominance; analysis on real examples; and critical discussion of current developments. Emphasis is placed in particular on relevant provisions, practice, and case law of the European Union competition law as well as on examples of abuse of dominance cases from the Czech Republic.

    Enforcement of articles 101, 102 TFEU, responsible supervisors: doc. JUDr.Michal Petr, Ph.D. and Mgr. Ing. Kamil Nejezchleb, Ph.D.

    The course focuses on procedural aspects of competition law and practical aspects of competition law enforcement at the EU and Czech level. The course content includes the following topics: introduction to the procedural antitrust and enforcement rules of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU; practical insights into Czech enforcement practice; application according to the Regulations 1/2003 and 773/2004. Emphasis is placed on understanding all basic aspects of the enforcement process, in a comparative EU/Member State (Czech Republic) perspective. 

    Winter semester: 

    Control of concentrations, responsible supervisors: doc. JUDr. Václav Šmejkal, Ph.D., DEA and JUDr. M.Jur. Jiří Kindl, Ph.D.

    The course focuses specifically on the concentrations’ (mergers & acquisitions) control rules in the EU, as seen through the eyes of the companies involved in these transactions. The course content consists of three main parts: introduction to the EU control of concentrations; concentrations – theory and assessment of their effect on competition; and control of concentrations - procedural issues. The course covers both substantive and procedural aspects of merger control, working with a wealth of case law and real-life case studies.  

    Control of state aid and state monopolies, responsible supervisors: JUDr. Jan Malíř, Ph.D. and Mgr. et Mgr. Miroslav Jakab 

    The course is specifically targeted at those distortions of competition that may arise from aid granted by states or from state resources to undertakings participating in competition. The course includes the following topics: introduction - the purpose and nature of the state aid and state monopolies regulation in the EU; EU state aid law – substantive and procedural; state aid -specific issues and enforcement practice. In this course, participants are thus introduced to the substantive and procedural legal aspects of this specific part of competition law, which, although addressed to Member States, is of crucial importance for undertakings - potential beneficiaries of state aid and their potentially disadvantaged competitors.
     

  • Optional courses

    Summer semester 
    (Participants must take 2 courses)

    Due process and Fundamental rights in antitrust, responsible supervisor:  doc. JUDr.Michal Petr, Ph.D.

    The course focuses on the protection of the fundamental rights of participants in proceedings before competition authorities. The course content consists of two parts: Due process – introduction and overview; Due process – specific issues. The aim is to present, through interactive teaching based on existing case law, the complex issue of the interaction between the requirement for effective protection of competition and at the same time a high standard of protection of the rights of parties to competition proceedings.


    The economics and doctrines of antitrust, responsible supervisors: JUDr. M.Jur. Jiří Kindl, Ph.D.and Mgr. Michael Mikulík, LL.M.

    The doctrinal foundations of competition protection are closely linked to the development of economic thinking and economic analysis. The course thus focuses on issues preceding the practical exercise of competition law and examines the theories from which competition law draws its concepts, objectives, and justifications. The course content consists of two parts: economics of antitrust; evolution and doctrines of antitrust. This course will give participants a basic insight into this non-legal knowledge, which has a major impact on the form and practice of competition law.

    Private enforcement in antitrust, responsible supervisor: JUDr. M.Jur. Lucie Mikulíková, Ph.D.

    Private enforcement of competition law is on the rise in the EU and throughout continental Europe, and the possibility of high damages is beginning to influence the competitive mindset and behaviour of businesses. The course focuses the issue of lawsuits for damages caused by the violation of competition regulations and on experience with the application of the EU Directive 2014/104 on antitrust damages. The course content consists of two main parts: Private enforcement – origins, legal basis, concepts, and principles; Private enforcement – practice and procedure. 


    Winter semester
    (Participants must take 3 courses) 

    IPR and antitrust, responsible supervisor: JUDr. M.Jur. Lucie Mikulíková, Ph.D.

    The course focuses on the ambivalent relationship between the protection of industrial and intellectual property on the one hand and the protection of economic competition on the other. Although these two safeguards both aim to preserve the dynamics of competition and to achieve greater efficiency, they use tools and methods that may come into conflict. The course content consists of two main parts: IPR and antitrust – introduction and overview; IPR and antitrust - specific issues and their relevant case law.  

    Network industries and antitrust, responsible supervisor: Mgr. Jiří Mňuk, LL.M.

    The course focuses the current issue of protecting economic competition in network industries such as railways, post, and telecom, with an emphasis on telecommunications networks and digital services. In these areas, competition law has to cope with a number of specifics, be it so-called natural monopolies, direct and indirect network effects, the need to share networks, or the cooperation of competitors during their construction and commissioning, etc. The course content consists of two main parts: regulation of network industries; discussion of practical issues in telecom networks’ antitrust.

    Pharmaceuticals/Healthcare and antitrust, responsible supervisor: JUDr. Barbora Dubanská, Ph.D., LL.M.

    The course focuses the specifics of the protection of economic competition in the sensitive and regulated sectors of health care and the production and distribution of pharmaceuticals. The urgency of a deeper analysis of the effects of competition in this sector has been demonstrated both by the recent Covid-19 pandemic and the acute dependence of many European countries on the supply of medicines from a few multinational pharmaceutical giants. The course content is thus focused on the doctrines and evolution of antitrust in the field of pharma and healthcare. 

    Sports and antitrust, responsible supervisor: JUDr. Jan Exner, Ph.D.

    In the current understanding of competition law, professional sport is also an economic and competitive activity and its performers - professional athletes and sport clubs - are undertakings. This has far-reaching consequences for individuals, sports clubs, their federations and national and international sports leagues and competitions. The course thus focuses on the specifics of the protection of economic competition in the field of sports and its presents with doctrines and evolution of antitrust in this field. 

     

Meet our lectures

  •

    doc. JUDr. Václav Šmejkal, Ph.D.

    He is an Associate Professor at the Department of European Law, Faculty of Law, Charles University. He has been working on competition protection for two decades as a teacher, analyst, corporate lecturer, and consultant and an author of studies…
    Lecturer

    doc. JUDr. Václav Šmejkal, Ph.D.

    He is an Associate Professor at the Department of European Law, Faculty of Law, Charles University. He has been working on competition protection for two decades as a teacher, analyst, corporate lecturer, and consultant and an author of studies and commentaries. He is a member of the editorial board of the ANTITRUST Revue of Competition Law, author and editor of books and studies on the history of EU competition law, the competition case law of the EU Courts, and the impact of digitalization and globalization on EU competition law. In 2022, he organized an international conference with the participation of EU Commissioner M. Vestager entitled Antitrust Hot Topics & Next Steps and edited the conference proceedings of the same name. Outside of antitrust, he focuses on EU consumer and social policies. He is also an arbitrator at the permanent Court of Arbitration at the Chamber of Commerce and Agrarian Affairs of the Czech Republic in Prague and since 2017, a visiting professor at the University of Zagreb, Croatia, and also a member of the editorial board of its INTEREULAWEAST scientific journal.

  • JUDr. Petra Joanna Šimečková Pipková, Ph.D., LL.M.

    She is a senior lecturer at the Department of Civil Law of the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague, where she teaches competition law and regulation in network sectors and law of obligations in the Master’s Programme for over ten years.…
    Lecturer

    JUDr. Petra Joanna Šimečková Pipková, Ph.D., LL.M.

    She is a senior lecturer at the Department of Civil Law of the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague, where she teaches competition law and regulation in network sectors and law of obligations in the Master’s Programme for over ten years. She is also an attorney at the law firm Havel & Partners where she specialises on competition law and also its private enforcement. She has extensive experience with proceedings in front of the Czech and Slovak competition authorities, the European Commission, as well as civil courts and proceedings on preliminary ruling before the Court of Justice. She authored numerous publications on competition law and specifically its private enforcement, incl. a monography on the scope of civil liability for anticompetitive behaviour. She is also a co-author of two commentaries to the Czech Civil Code, incl. provisions on competition law. She graduated from the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague. She also studied at the University of Passau where she completed the Master of European Laws specialized in European and German business law with a focus on competition law. Prior to joining the Charles University and Havel & Partners, Petra worked as a scientific assistant at the Institute for European Tort Law, Austrian Academy of Sciences, focusing her own research on private enforcement of competition law.

  • JUDr. Jan Exner, Ph.D.

    He is a researcher and a lecturer at the European Law Department at the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague. He graduated from the Université Toulouse 1 Capitole (Diplôme d’Etude de l’Union Européenne, 2015), the Faculty of Law of…
    Lecturer

    JUDr. Jan Exner, Ph.D.

    He is a researcher and a lecturer at the European Law Department at the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague. He graduated from the Université Toulouse 1 Capitole (Diplôme d’Etude de l’Union Européenne, 2015), the Faculty of Law of Charles University (Mgr., 2016; JUDr., 2018; PhD, 2022) and the Catholic University in Leuven (Executive Masters in Sport Organisation Management, 2021). His research focuses on the interaction of EU law and sports, most recently on the proportionality of sanctions for doping and the related role of anti-doping education. He published a monograph “Sporting Nationality in the Context of European Union Law” with Springer in 2019. On top of that, he published three papers in the peer-reviewed International Sports Law Journal, the world’s most widely read journal in the area of sports law (Law, Q02). He also enriches his research with supplementary academic and practical experience. In 2019, he was the academic director of the international Common Law Society Summer School: Global Law of Sport, View from a Mountain. He works closely with sporting governing bodies, particularly the Czech Olympic Committee, the Czech Anti-Doping Committee, and the International Swimming Federation.

  • Mgr. Miroslav Jakab

    He graduated from the Faculty of Law, Charles University, in 2019 and from the Institute of Economic Studies, Charles University, in 2020. Between 2019 and 2022, he worked in the Parliamentary Institute of the Czech Chamber of Deputies as an…
    Lecturer

    Mgr. Miroslav Jakab

    He graduated from the Faculty of Law, Charles University, in 2019 and from the Institute of Economic Studies, Charles University, in 2020. Between 2019 and 2022, he worked in the Parliamentary Institute of the Czech Chamber of Deputies as an independent policy researcher and analyst supporting the work of the Members of Parliament. In 2022, he further completed a five-month traineeship at the European Commission, Directorate General for Competition. He currently carries out research as a member of the Department of European Law of the Faculty of Law of Charles University, where he specializes in competition law and the economic reasoning related to it.

     

  • JUDr. Jiří Kindl, M.Jur., Ph.D.

    He is a partner in law firm Skils s.r.o. (formerly WEIL, GOTSHAL, & MANGES). In his legal practice, he specializes primarily in competition and regulatory matters. Jiri Kindl graduated summa cum laude from the Faculty of Law, Charles…
    Lecturer

    JUDr. Jiří Kindl, M.Jur., Ph.D.

    He is a partner in law firm Skils s.r.o. (formerly WEIL, GOTSHAL, & MANGES). In his legal practice, he specializes primarily in competition and regulatory matters. Jiri Kindl graduated summa cum laude from the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague. He also studied law at the University of Limerick (Ireland) and a post-graduate course at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford (University College) where he obtained Distinction and Clifford Chance Prize for Best Performance in Magister Juris, Winter Williams European Business Regulation Prize and Monckton Chambers Prize in Competition Law. He authored numerous publications on competition law topics both in the Czech Republic and abroad, e.g., he is the co-author of a textbook on Competition Law (Prague, C.H. Beck, 3rd ed, 2021), Commentary to the Czech Competition Act (Prague, C.H. Beck, 3rd ed, 2016), Commentary to the Act on Significant Market Power (Prague, C.H. Beck, 2017), and Commentary to the Act on Damages in the Area of Competition (Prague, C.H. Beck, 2019). Jiri Kindl also lectures on competition law and economics at the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague. He has extensive experience with proceedings in front of the Czech competition authority, the European Commission, as well as civil courts and he is regularly referred to in publications such as Chambers Europe, Global Competition Review, Legal500 etc. as a leading antitrust lawyer in the Czech Republic.  

  • JUDr. Jan Malíř, Ph.D.

    He graduated summa cum laude from Charles University School of Law (2001) from which he also holds his JUDr. (2003) and his Ph.D. (2009). He also attended various specialized courses at foreign institutions, such as the Hague Academy of…
    Lecturer

    JUDr. Jan Malíř, Ph.D.

    He graduated summa cum laude from Charles University School of Law (2001) from which he also holds his JUDr. (2003) and his Ph.D. (2009). He also attended various specialized courses at foreign institutions, such as the Hague Academy of International Law (The Hague, Netherlands), Academy of European Law (Florence, Italy), Institut International des Droits de l´Homme (Strasbourg, France), Humboldt University (Berlin, Germany), and Central European University (Budapest, Hungary). Since 2007, he has been a research fellow at the Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Since 2015, he has been a member of the Commission for EU Law at the Legislative Council of the Cabinet, an advisory body to the Czech Cabinet (Prague), since 2015, he has also been a member of the Steering Committee of the Centre Français de Recherche en Sciences Sociales (Prague). In the past, he taught selected courses at the Metropolitan University in Prague (Czech Republic) and University of Hradec Králové (Czech Republic). Jan Malíř has authored and co-authored some 16 monographs and more than 60 articles, reports, and book reviews focused on EU law (in particular, institutional law, and EU state aid law), comparative constitutional law and selected issues of public international law.

  • Mgr. Michael Mikulík, LL.M.

    He graduated from the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague (Mgr., 2002) and from the University of Cambridge (LL.M., 2008) where his primary focus was on European competition law. Since 2010, he has been working at the Czech Competition…
    Lecturer

    Mgr. Michael Mikulík, LL.M.

    He graduated from the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague (Mgr., 2002) and from the University of Cambridge (LL.M., 2008) where his primary focus was on European competition law. Since 2010, he has been working at the Czech Competition Authority (Office), initially as Head of the Dominance and Vertical Agreements Department, then as Vice-Chairman of the Section on Protection of Competition and Head of the Appeals Section. On behalf of the Office, he participated in Advisory Committees by the European Commission, DG Competition. Currently he is in charge of the unit tasked with the supervision of significant market power in the food chain. He contributes as an author and co-author in Czech and foreign professional publications. He participates in training judges in competition law within Czech Judicial Academy and lectures competition law at the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague. In the past he also lectured competition law in training sessions organized under the patronage of the United Nations (UNCTAD). 

Application deadline:
October 31, 2023

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