Final Word from Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Just days after we wrote on Oct. 26 about the highway-toll tender, the ÚOHS antitrust office launched formal proceedings against the selection of a new, cheaper operator as of 2020. Petr Rafaj's antitrust office acted on a petition from the incumbent operator, Kapsch Telematic Services. Everyone can understand why Kapsch would want to postpone losing its current contract. Less obvious is why Kapsch is in such a rush. If Rafaj's office struck down the tender quickly, bidders wouldn't have time to enter their offers, and no one would see the difference between the current market price and what Kapsch has been receiving for the past decade. We have been temporarily enjoined by two courts from reproducing our recent comments on the issue. A court can ban every letter of our recent Final Word about Rafaj, but the lawyer who filed the complaint against us can himself share the same text on Facebook and Twitter. This is the state of press freedom in the CR. [Czech Republic Radek competition temporary injunction]