EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS

Prague, Czechia

EU ANTITRUST: HOT TOPICS & NEXT STEPS 2022

emphasize the role of dialogue, can be questioned regarding if the Member States deliberately distance themselves from EU values (Mak et al. , 2016, p. 48). Therefore, it needs to use antitrust mechanisms more actively to detect instances of states taking advantage of the current situation to breach the EU for two important reasons. On the one hand, there is no doubt that competition law responds to the objective social need for the satisfaction of which society has not yet found another more effective and at the same time more clear-cut legal instrument (Šmejkal, 2017, p. 101). On the other hand, the EU’s repeated failure to promptly and determinedly act not only undermines its credibility and legitimacy, it is also bound to lead to the unravelling of the EU’s interconnected legal order (Pech et al. , 2021, p. 42). 4. Conclusion Granting a monopoly to PVZP for travel medical insurance for foreigners in the Czech Republic cannot be justified. The measures taken were disproportionate to the proposed aims and were not in keeping with a democratic society. Moreover, there is no discernible extra protection for migrants, quite the contrary; it is alleged that, by eliminating all competition at the expense of infringing on the freedom to provide services, the Czech state is only pursuing its own interests by receiving additional political control of the insurance industry and possible dividends, as well as reducing migrants’ access to residency in the Czech Republic. Many internationally renowned documents have stated the fundamental importance of the right to adequate medical care. In the conditions of the Czech state’s chosen path of not including the aforementioned foreigners in the public insurance system (which, of course, has proven to be a more viable solution in other EU-states), this issue cannot be successfully implemented without competition and freedom of choice. This is especially true for commercial insurance companies that can offer different insurance options, bonuses, and programs in their competition for clients. The only thing that is required is proper legal regulation of the private sector by setting minimum standards to avoid abuse in this potentially sensitive and vulnerable sphere. Even though the significance of antimonopoly legislation has been repeatedly confirmed in many studies, this article once again convincingly shows that the truly worrisome monopolies are those that are government engineered and maintained (McKenzie, Richard B., 2008, p. 226).

219