Polish Leniency Programme and its Intersection with Private Enforcement of Competition Law

This paper is devoted to the Polish leniency programme, including the conditions of obtaining lenient treatment and the applicable procedure. The type, scope and form of information that must be submitted are commented on as well as the marker system and summary applications. The intersection of the leniency scheme with private enforcement of antitrust rules is discussed in detail. Special attention is devoted to the possible ways in which private antitrust plaintiffs might access information submitted to the UOKiK by leniency applicants. Thoroughly analysed are the rules regulating the possibility of obtaining relevant documents from the UOKiK and from the defendant in the course of civil proceedings as well as the status of the administrative decision in subsequent civil litigation. The paper covers also the scope of the leniency recipient’s civil liability and touches upon the possible ways in which it could be limited to enhance the effectiveness of the leniency scheme. Some suggestions de lege ferenda are also provided concerning the means of increasing this effectiveness without prejudice to the private parties’ right to compensation.competition law, leniency, whistle-blowing, cartels, private enforcement, discovery, protection of applications, follow-on actions, scope of damages

Polish Leniency Programme and its Intersection with Private Enforcement of Competition Law

This paper is devoted to the Polish leniency programme, including the conditions of obtaining lenient treatment and the applicable procedure. The type, scope and form of information that must be submitted are commented on as well as the marker system and summary applications. The intersection of the leniency scheme with private enforcement of antitrust rules is discussed in detail. Special attention is devoted to the possible ways in which private antitrust plaintiffs might access information submitted to the UOKiK by leniency applicants. Thoroughly analysed are the rules regulating the possibility of obtaining relevant documents from the UOKiK and from the defendant in the course of civil proceedings as well as the status of the administrative decision in subsequent civil litigation. The paper covers also the scope of the leniency recipient’s civil liability and touches upon the possible ways in which it could be limited to enhance the effectiveness of the leniency scheme. Some suggestions de lege ferenda are also provided concerning the means of increasing this effectiveness without prejudice to the private parties’ right to compensation

Polish Leniency Programme and its Intersection with Private Enforcement of Competition Law

This paper is devoted to the Polish leniency programme, including the conditions of obtaining lenient treatment and the applicable procedure. The type, scope and form of information that must be submitted are commented on as well as the marker system and summary applications. The intersection of the leniency scheme with private enforcement of antitrust rules is discussed in detail. Special attention is devoted to the possible ways in which private antitrust plaintiffs might access information submitted to the UOKiK by leniency applicants. Thoroughly analysed are the rules regulating the possibility of obtaining relevant documents from the UOKiK and from the defendant in the course of civil proceedings as well as the status of the administrative decision in subsequent civil litigation. The paper covers also the scope of the leniency recipient’s civil liability and touches upon the possible ways in which it could be limited to enhance the effectiveness of the leniency scheme. Some suggestions de lege ferenda are also provided concerning the means of increasing this effectiveness without prejudice to the private parties’ right to compensation

Developmental toxicity of N-methylaniline following prenatal oral administration in rats

Objectives: The objective of the study was to assess prenatal toxicity of N-methylaniline (NMA) administered by gavage to pregnant female rats. Material and Methods: Pregnant female rats were administered N-methylaniline in corn oil by gavage at daily doses of 0.8 mg/kg of body weight (b.w.), 4 mg/kg b.w., 20 mg/kg b.w. and 100 mg/kg b.w. from implantation (the 5th day post mating) to the day prior to the scheduled caesarean section (the 20th day of pregnancy). General behavior, body weight, food and water consumption, hematological, biochemical analyses and pathomorphological changes of the dams were recorded. Results: All the females survived until the end of the study. The test substance was toxic to pregnant females, even at the lowest of the used doses, i.e., 0.8 mg/kg b.w./day. Lower weight gain during pregnancy and significantly higher NMA-dose-dependent absolute weight of the organs were noted in the exposed females. The females from the groups exposed at doses of 20 mg/kg b.w./day and 100 mg/kg b.w./day developed anemia and showed higher concentrations of free thyroxine (FT3) and free triiodothyronine (FT4) thyroid hormones. Total protein concentration exhibited an increase in all the exposed groups of females. In the prenatal toxicity study, administration of N-methylaniline throughout the embryonic and fetal periods produced embryotoxic effects at doses ranging 4–100 mg/kg b.w./day. Conclusions: Considering the data obtained in this study, it is reasonable to assume that N-methylaniline administered orally to pregnant rats is toxic for mothers even at a low dose of 0.8 mg/kg b.w./day. However, this dose was not associated with any significant effects to their offspring. This prenatal exposure level may be considered as no-observed-adverse-effect level (NOAEL) for the progeny and a dose of 4 mg/kg b.w./day as the lowest-observed-adverse-effect level (LOAEL) for the progeny

Production of recombinant colicin M in Nicotiana tabacum plants and its antimicrobial activity

Antibiotic-resistant microorganisms causing a life-threatening infection pose a serious challenge for modern science. The rapidly growing number of incidents for which the use of standard antibiotics is ineffective forces us to develop new alternative methods of killing microorganisms. Antimicrobial proteins and peptides (AMPs) can be promising candidates to solve this problem. Colicin-M is one of the representatives of this group and is naturally produced by Escherichia coli acting on other closely related bacterial strains by disrupting their outer cell membrane. This bacteriocin has huge potential as a potent antimicrobial agent, especially, since it was recognized by the FDA as safe. In this work, we present the expression of colicin M in model transgenic Nicotiana tabacum L. plants. We demonstrate that purified colicin retains its antibacterial activity against the control Escherichia coli strains and clinical isolates of Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Our results also show that plant-derived ColM is not toxic for L929 and HeLa cell line, which allows us to suppose that plant-based expression could be an alternative production method of such important proteins

Insights into the Transposable Mobilome of Paracoccus spp. (Alphaproteobacteria)

Several trap plasmids (enabling positive selection of transposition events) were used to identify a pool of functional transposable elements (TEs) residing in bacteria of the genus Paracoccus (Alphaproteobacteria). Complex analysis of 25 strains representing 20 species of this genus led to the capture and characterization of (i) 37 insertion sequences (ISs) representing 9 IS families (IS3, IS5, IS6, IS21, IS66, IS256, IS1182, IS1380 and IS1634), (ii) a composite transposon Tn6097 generated by two copies of the ISPfe2 (IS1634 family) containing two predicted genetic modules, involved in the arginine deiminase pathway and daunorubicin/doxorubicin resistance, (iii) 3 non-composite transposons of the Tn3 family, including Tn5393 carrying streptomycin resistance and (iv) a transposable genomic island TnPpa1 (45 kb). Some of the elements (e.g. Tn5393, Tn6097 and ISs of the IS903 group of the IS5 family) were shown to contain strong promoters able to drive transcription of genes placed downstream of the target site of transposition. Through the application of trap plasmid pCM132TC, containing a promoterless tetracycline resistance reporter gene, we identified five ways in which transposition can supply promoters to transcriptionally silent genes. Besides highlighting the diversity and specific features of several TEs, the analyses performed in this study have provided novel and interesting information on (i) the dynamics of the process of transposition (e.g. the unusually high frequency of transposition of TnPpa1) and (ii) structural changes in DNA mediated by transposition (e.g. the generation of large deletions in the recipient molecule upon transposition of ISPve1 of the IS21 family). We also demonstrated the great potential of TEs and transposition in the generation of diverse phenotypes as well as in the natural amplification and dissemination of genetic information (of adaptative value) by horizontal gene transfer, which is considered the driving force of bacterial evolution

The Impact of EU Law on a National Competition Authority's Leniency Programme – the Case of Poland

This paper is devoted to the impact of EU law on national leniency programmes, especially the Polish one. It analyses the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice in Pfleiderer, Donau Chemie and Schenker and identifies three specific areas of potential EU influence on national leniency programmes. The impact of EU law on the rules of access to leniency documents is analysed in detail on the basis of both EU and Polish law and taking into account the Draft Directive on Antitrust Damages Actions. The paper covers also the extent to which the principle of effectiveness of EU law limits the procedural autonomy of Member States in regard to their leniency programmes. This analysis covers both “negative conditions”, that is, elements of national leniency programmes which are incompatible with EU law, and “positive conditions”, in order words, those elements of domestic leniency programmes which are seen as necessary for securing their effectiveness.L'article concerne l'influence du droit de l‘Union européenne sur les programmes de clémence nationaux, en particulier le programme polonais. La jurisprudence de la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne est analysée, surtout les arrêts en Pfleiderer, Donau Chemie et Schenker. Les trois avenues de l'influence du droit européen sur le programme de clémence sont identifiés – les règles d'accès aux confessions des entreprises bénéficiaires de la clémence, qui sont analysées en détaille, les limitations des programmes nationaux de clémence à cause du principe d'effectivité et les obligations des autorités nationales de concurrence d’assurer l'effectivité des programmes de clémenc