Officials of the Czech antitrust office UOHS have raided the offices of the largest Czech internet company Seznam on October as part of their investigation into the company’s market position.

Seznam.cz is a serious rival to Google as a search browser in Czechia, and its billionaire owner Ivo Lukačovič said in August he is considering an IPO.

UOHS  “is carrying out an unannounced inspection at the Seznam.cz company, as part of which it is examining a suspicion over antitrust action, abuse of dominant position in particular,” UOHS spokesperson Martin Švanda stated, declining to comment any further.

“One of the hardest days of my professional life,” Ivo Lukačovič posted on his X (formerly Twitter) account on October 16.

Seznam.cz also confirmed the raid, stating that UOHS officials arrived at Seznam.cz on October 15. “Even though we don’t have information that any official review of Seznam.cz has been launched, we are, of course, cooperating,” Seznam.cz spokesperson Aneta Kapucianová was quoted as saying, Seznam Zpravy (SZ) news website reported.

As bne Intellinews reported, news of the UOHS review of Seznam.cz appeared last month after UOHS admitted to it in its own press statement, which was published in response to critical articles by SZ, authored by Czechia’s leading investigative journalists Adéla Jelínková and Lukáš Valášek.

The SZ reporting looks into contacts between UOHS CEO Petr Mlsna and Michal Petrik, who is indicted for his role in a nationwide corruption scandal involving large-scale and systematic public tenders manipulation using a hacked lottery system.

In a press statement dated August 28, UOHS wrote that the article “could be a warning gesture from the Seznam side towards the office [UOHS], which recently began to follow the company’s actions”.

Czech Press Agency (CTK) noted that in the summer controversial Minister of Justice Pavel Blazek accused SZ of illegally releasing a video of police apprehending the Chomutov town Mayor Marek Hrabáč of the populist ANO party made by a person from a neighbouring residential building.  

In a separate development, SZ editor-in-chief Jakub Unger stepped down after replacing Jiri Kubik only in June. Unger has worked with SZ for the past eight years and for now will be replaced by a Petr Sabata, editor-on-chief of Právo daily and former editor-in-chief of the Czech Radio’s Plus frequency.

The announcement comes only days after Lukačovič caused an outcry among Czech journalists after he slammed the publishing of data analysis at SZ, which appeared to back the IT competencies of the liberal Czech Pirate Party. The Pirates left the government in September after leader Ivan Bartos was sacked by Prime Minister Petr Fiala for alleaged incompetence in the launch of a new digital construction permit system.  

Lukačovič slammed the publishing of the analysis, which included leakage of data before the article itself was published, stating “not on my watch” on X, and SZ fired the authors Kateřina Mahdalová and Michal Škop, fuelling speculations about the extent of Lukočovič’s influence over  SZ's editorial room and an alleged shift in its political stance to the right.