On 2nd of June 2005 Polish president of the Office of competition and consumer protection (OCCP) which is equivalent of Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic, ordered to authorized organization Rekopol to immediately discontinue the competition restricting practices that it was charged with. The matter referred to the sing “Green Dot” marking.
Since January 2004, at request of Zakład Gospodarki Komunalnej Organizacja Odzysku Biosystem, the OCCP has been conducting an investigation against authorized organization Rekopol, which is the only company with the licence for using “Green Dot“ mark in Poland. In the opinion of the applicant, authorized organization Rekopol breaches market rules since enterprises that want to use the “Green Dot” marking are forced to enter into recycling contracts exclusively with that company. If they wished to make use of a competitive offer and be able to lawfully place the “Green Dot” mark on packaging, they would have to pay double.
The information collected by the Office shows, that Rekopol could have breached the provisions of the antimonopoly law. Making it conditional to use the “Green Dot” marking on entrusting the services of waste recycling (with respect to all kinds of packaging), may constitute a restricting competition practice. In the opinion of the OCCP the practices of authorized organization Rekopol result in an inferior market situation of the other recycling organizations by loss of their clients or difficulties in obtaining new clients thus are consolidating the dominant position of the company.
As continuation of the practices may cause major and difficult to repair hazard to competition, the President of the OCCP ordered Rekopol to immediately discontinue the questioned practices, even before a final decision in the matter has been issued. In accordance with the law, should Rekopol appeal against the decision of the President of the OCCP, it remains in force.
Official version of the press release about decision of president OCCP can be found here.
September 20th, 2007
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