Taylor Wessing Czech Republic offered competition compliance workshop at Compliance Conference

On Thursday, June 6, 2024, the annual conference of the Czech Compliance Association was held at the Louvre Gallery in Prague 1, entitled Compliance Odyssey. The law firm Taylor Wessing Czech Republic was the main partner of this successful event. He once again reminded us that running an organization according to the rules is a long and winding road, but that it brings us ever closer to this goal.

“This conference clearly showed that compliance and the exchange of experiences in setting up compliance systems and implementing associated processes are very important for people working in the field of compliance. But more importantly, the open atmosphere and active participation of the participants confirmed that people working in the field of compliance take their mission seriously, and not as a necessary fulfillment of some formal requirements. And that’s what we, the CCA board members, are happiest about.” » reflected Radim Bureš, PhD, member of the CCA Executive Board.

The one-day conference, which attracted 142 participants, included panel discussions, workshops and, last but not least, networking opportunities. Markéta Deimelová from Taylor Wessing Czech Republic led a workshop on competition compliance. She presented clearly, step by step, the competition rules, the powers of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection in local investigations and the methodology of the Office’s compliance programs, the recent decisions of the European Commission on prohibited agreements and bid-rigging, as well as sanctions and fines. His presentation included an analysis of specific examples in which local investigations were hampered.

“The conference participants created a very friendly atmosphere and I was delighted to receive a number of very positive responses after the presentation,” said Markéta Deimelová, partner at Taylor Wessing Czech Republic and head of the Competition, European and International Law and Compliance team.

The morning program also included the panel on international sanctions and the risks of circumvention. In light of the ongoing war in Ukraine, this panel addressed a very important and complex topical issue due to the danger of supplying sanctioned goods to Russia via third countries. Since the imposition of sanctions, exports to Central Asian countries, for example, have increased significantly. Participants also spoke of the danger that Russian citizens’ ownership in sanctioned companies would be hidden in opaque ownership structures. Another equally interesting panel was The Denunciation a year later. It will soon be a year since the adoption of Law No. 171/2003 on the protection of whistleblowers, which imposes a number of obligations on companies and authorities, including the establishment of an internal channel alert to report possible violations. The panel brought together representatives from the Department of Justice as well as representatives from selected law firms. The sensitive issue of transferring information obtained from a whistleblower abroad was also addressed.