Last year was a year of extremes for the Czech Republic's Office for the Protection of Competition. On the policy and procedural front, 2008 was a watershed year. It saw the office open a variety of cases and achieve several notable court successes. The authority received a record number of applications under its retooled leniency programme, and it instituted procedures givING companies the ability to negotiate settlements to avoid arduous administrative proceedings and appeals. The new policies and procedures are, in the eyes of competition specialists and analysts at the OECD, signs of significant improvement in an agency that appeared to be floundering earlier this decade.