Possible objective justification of a network monopoly’s refusal to conclude an agreement on an interconnected market. Case comment to the judgement of the Supreme Court of 14 January 2009 – Rychwał Commune (Ref. No. III SK 24/08)

Michał Mijal

In the decision RPZ-18/2006 issued on 5 July 2006, the President of the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (hereafter, UOKiK) stated that the practices of the Rychwał Commune constituted an abuse of its dominant position held on the local market for liquid waste services. The practice consisted of the refusal to conclude an agreement with an entrepreneur for the receiving of liquid waste from the residents of the Commune. Rychwał refused to conclude the contract on technical grounds stating that the amount of liquid waste that could be received by their refinery was limited by the amount inflowing through their sanitary sewage system. The Commune invoked also the refinery’s exploitation manual and stressed that the facility’s limits were filled by those entities that were already providing such services in its territory, seeing as the Commune has previously signed several of such contracts with other entities.