The Office for the Protection of Competition (“Office”) imposed a fine of CZK 97 million (approx. EUR 4 million) on the company GARLAND distributor, s.r.o. (“GARLAND”) for vertical agreements on resale price maintenance. Historically, this is the highest fine ever imposed for this type of anti-competitive conduct, which is the consequence of the new fining guidelines of the Office.

At the beginning of the year, inflation accelerated to 9.9% yoy. This was slightly above market and CNB expectations, but fears of a much higher price growth did not materialise. According to our preliminary estimate, core inflation, on the other hand, is slightly lower than expected, which reduces the need for further tightening of monetary policy. Nevertheless, due to concerns about inflationary expectations and the pass-through of higher energy prices into other items in the consumer basket, we expect a slight increase in the CNB's main interest rate at the next meeting.

For decades, the engineering and manufacturing skills of the Czech nation have been the country's greatest asset. 

Inflation is one of the main economic issues for 2022. The impact of high input prices and disrupted supply chains are other factors businesses must cope with. But there are also other adverse factors. The slowing economy has also revealed new issues in the area of transfer pricing.