The Office for the Protection of Competition is concerned about the conduct of certain professional chambers, including the Czech Chamber of Architects

Brno - The Office for the Protection of Competition (ÚOHS) is concerned about the actions of certain professional chambers, whose behavior may restrict competition. ÚOHS criticized, for example, the conduct of the Chamber of Executors of the Czech Republic and the Czech Chamber of Architects. ČTK was informed today by the chairman of the office, Petr Rafaj. In extreme cases, chambers face millions in fines.
    Since the spring of this year, ÚOHS has been examining the behavior of the executors' chamber. It is investigating the rules of professional ethics and competition rules for judicial executors issued by the chamber in 2006. According to these rules, if an executor charges a fee in connection with execution activities that is lower than the price established by the relevant regulation, "it constitutes a serious violation of competition rules among executors". This could limit competition in the pricing area.
    According to Rafaj, however, "every service provider has the right to charge a lower fee than the applicable tariff fee prescribed by any regulation. Similarly, they are entitled to refrain from demanding a fee altogether at their own discretion".
    Vice President of the Chamber of Executors of the Czech Republic, David Koncz, disagrees with the chairman of ÚOHS. According to him, the amount of the judicial executor's fee is clearly defined by a regulation of the Ministry of Justice, and the court decides on the costs of execution. "A fee stipulated by law cannot be reduced or increased at the will of the judicial executor based on an agreement with a participant in the proceedings. This element is deliberately suppressed by the state in execution activities," Koncz pointed out.
    According to him, an executor is not a classical entrepreneur. "The position of a judicial executor is primarily public law, the acts of a judicial executor are considered acts of the court, the position of a judicial executor in relation to participants in the proceedings cannot be compared to a classical business relationship, nor can the relationship among judicial executors be compared to a classical relationship among entrepreneurs offering goods or services," Koncz added, stating that the chamber is ready to discuss this topic with ÚOHS.
    Rafaj also criticized the methodological documents on the websites of professional chambers, which refer to schemes and programs intended for calculating fees, for example at the Czech Chamber of Architects. "It is unacceptable to comment on the ratio of the price for an architect's service to the total price of a construction contract, or to derive the architect's fee from the subsequent price of the construction work," Rafaj stated. According to him, nothing prevents entrepreneurs from charging a price that does not cover costs, or from refraining entirely from demanding a fee.
    The Czech Chamber of Architects (ČKA), however, argues that mediating information for calculating the designer's fee is a legal obligation of the chamber. "We believe that this procedure is our duty, as we must fulfill the statutory authorization, which includes, among other things, cooperation in the protection of public interests in the fields of construction, architecture, and urban planning, taking care of the high level of performance of authorized persons, and supporting professional education and assisting in the dissemination of professional information," the ČKA wrote.
    According to the first vice-chairman of the ČKA board and the chairman of the working group for transparent public procurement, Petr Lešek, the inability to express an opinion on the amount of the architect's service fee would mainly harm investors. "The content and extent of the work of an architect/engineer is entirely unimaginable for an average person, and a query directed to a public law institution thus represents a certain level of guarantee for the professionalism of the provided answer. It is not possible to calculate the project price without knowing the complexity of the future construction. There is a clear interconnection between them," noted Lešek, pointing out that the ČKA learned about ÚOHS's criticism only through the media.
    In the past, the Architects' Chamber criticized, for example, the tender of the Brno University of Technology for selecting a designer for a new building of the Faculty of Fine Arts. According to them, it was not conducted fairly. The chamber was among other things concerned that the fee for the designer was less than one to one and a half percent of the construction price.
    ÚOHS now wants to discuss the chambers' conduct with the relevant ministries and the chambers themselves. If no corrective action is taken, it will initiate administrative proceedings.