The Slovenská sporitel’ňa case: Can an unfair competitor be protected by competition rules?
Pursuant to the Article 267 TFEU preliminary ruling procedure in Slovenská sporitel’ňa the Court of Justice (CJ) dealt with the question whether a number of undertakings infringed Article 101 TFEU by agreeing to stop supplying a competitor of them that was alleged to carry out illegal activities. Akcenta was a Czech based financial house that in order provide cashless foreign exchange services to its clients in Slovakia needed to have access to current banks accounts in Slovakia. Considering Akcenta as a dangerous competitor, three Slovakian banks agreed to collectively terminate all the contracts they have concluded with Akcenta to the effect that the latter would have no more access to the bank accounts of the parties. The Slovakian competition authorities (SCA) found such agreement to be anticompetitive and fined the parties for infringing Article 101 TFEU (for a comment on this case see here . The banks appealed the SCA decision, pleading that by the contested agreement the