Insights from the Slovak Banking Cartel Case. Case Comment to the Preliminary Ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union of 7 February 2013 Protimonopolný Úrad Slovenskej Republiky v Slovenská Sporiteľňa a.s. (Case C-68/12)

By the decision of 9 June 2009, the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic (Protimonopolný úrad Slovenskej republiky, hereafter AMO) has found that three major Slovak banks had infringed Article 81 TEC (now Article 101 TFEU) as well as the applicable Slovak competition rules contained in the Law No. 136/2001. The decision was addressed to: Slovenská sporitel'ňa, Československá obchodná banka a.s. and Všeobecná úverová banka a.s. The banks had concluded a prohibited agreement to terminate current accounts contracts which they all had with the Czech company Akcenta CZ a.s. (hereafter: Akcenta). The AMO found that the aim of the agreement was to exclude Akcenta from the Slovak market for cashless foreign- exchange operations and to take over its clients. The banks considered Akcenta to be a competitor. The AMO imposed a total fine of € 101918001.In the course of the antitrust proceedings, the case was analyzed by the Supreme Court of the Slovak Republic which has ultimately requested the Court of Justice (CJ) to give a preliminary ruling on this case under the provisions of Article 267 TFEU. The resulting judgment was issued on 7 February 2013