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ENERGY The electricity companies E.ON and PRE are criticizing a recent ad campaign by ČEZ, the country’s dominant power utility, which attacks the companies by name, Mladá fronta Dnes reported Jan. 15. The campaign, reportedly worth 20 million Kč ($1.1 million), is unethical, said Ivan Douda of the Advertising Council.VW The German automaker Volkswagen is considering building a factory in Vrchlabí, north Bohemia, for production of its new Up! minicar, Právo reported Jan. 14. Volkswagen, the parent company of Škoda Auto, has high hopes for the car, which measures only 11.3 feet (3.4 meters) in length and will likely be sold under the Volkswagen, Škoda and Seat brands.VÍTKOVICE An arbitration court has ordered financier David Beran to sell his 45 percent stake in the engineering firm Vítkovice Holding to Jan Světlík for 97 million Kč, Hospodářské noviny reported Jan. 14. The court found that Beran ignored an option Světlík had on his stake when he attempted to sell his shares three years ago. Beran says the stake is worth 7 billion Kč.MADETA South Bohemian dairy farmers are threatening to cut off raw milk supplies to Madeta, the country’s largest milk producer, unless it raises prices, Lidové noviny reported Jan. 12. The farmers want 11.60 Kč per liter, which they would get in Germany, while Madeta wants to pay closer to the current 10 Kč per liter. SIMPSONS The teenager threatened with imprisonment for posting an illegal copy of The Simpsons Movie on the Internet reached a settlement with the movie’s local distributor, Bontonfilm, the Czech News Agency report Jan. 12. The 19-year-old agreed to pay a 150,000 Kč fine and publicly apologized for videotaping and distributing the movie. Bontonfilm estimated its losses from the theft at 5.5 million Kč.BRITISH Several former board members from the British Chamber of Commerce have announced the formation of their new association, the British Business Forum, which launched Jan. 10. The forum said it differs from other business associations in that it focuses on senior-level management. Its founding comes after last year’s shakeup at the British Chamber, which saw the chamber’s entire leadership replaced.INFLATION The country’s inflation rate continued its overheated growth, with consumer prices rising 0.5 percent from November to December, the Czech Statistical Office announced Jan. 9. The overall inflation rate now sits at 5.4 percent, 1.5 percentage points higher than the Czech National Bank (ČNB) predicted in its October forecast. The rise is largely due to rapid growth in food prices, the ČNB says.BETS Tipsport, the country’s largest betting agency, accepted bets worth 5.5 billion Kč in 2007, the lowest volume in the past three years, the firm announced Jan. 9. Tipsport’s spokesman blamed the results on the lack of high-profile international matches like the World Cup, and also on illegal competition coming from Internet betting agencies.

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