Kocian Solc Balastik is representing LEO Express before the Municipal Court in Prague in an unfair competition case against Ceske drahy (Czech Railways) -- the main railway operator in the Czech Republic.
In particular, LEO Express claims that, under the Czech Act on the Protection of Economic Competition and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Ceske drahy committed predatory pricing by offering very low prices on the Prague – Ostrava route, causing damage to LEO Express in the amount of CZK 418 million (approximately EUR 15.2 million).
LEO Express is an open-access train operator set up in 2010, which launched inter-city services in November 2012 on the Prague–Ostrava route.
KSB Partner Pavel Dejl, who's leading the firm's team on the case, added that “the action is important for the development of a competitive environment in railway passenger transport not only in the Czech Republic but in the European Union as a whole. The goal is to remedy the damage that CD, as holding a former monopoly, has caused in trying to prevent competitive private carriers such as LEO Express from entering the market and competing without EU subsidies.”