Milestones and Challenges for Effective International Cooperation in Competition Matters: the Experience of the Slovak NCA

This unit was published in „International Cooperation of Competition Authorities in Europe: from Bilateral Agreements to Transgovernmental Networks” Błachucki, M., ed., (2020).

International cooperation is one of key elements of successfully applying competition rules. As business becomes ever more global, there is an inevitable influence also on the assessment of competition. With increasing numbers of international transactions, powerful multinational companies and international cartels, it is all the more necessary for countries to cooperate with each other. The Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic (hereinafter as the ‘Slovak NCA’) does not operate in isolation; on the contrary,it needs strong support from partnering agencies in various forms, either at a regional level or a global level. A number of different possible forms of international cooperation have developed during the existence of the Slovak NCA. We have recapped our overall experience with all of these (either positive or unsuccessful) in the article. The ambition of the article is further to review the existing obstacles to closer cooperation, uncover the main reasons behind unsuccessful attempts at cooperation, and at the same time find a way past these obstacles. The new Directive 2019/1, dealing with strengthening the NCAs’ powers might be an important step towards more effective cooperation. The Slovak NCA’s approach to the amendment of its legislation is described in the article.