Commission for Protection of Competition conducted, on November 30, 2015 dawn raids of the premises of the companies Philip Morris Services d.o.o. and British American Tobacco South East Europe d.o.o., due to a reasonable assumption that an infringement of competition was made.

The Commission has also initiated procedures ex officio, against these companies on suspicion that, as market participants, they have consorted their practices regarding pricing of their products.

By conducting dawn raid, authorized officials of the Commission carried out sudden inspection of premises, i.e. data, documents and things of which the party or the holder of premises and things have been notified on the spot, at the time of conducting the inspection.This instrument is extremely effective for detection of cartel agreements and other forms of infringement of competition. During dawn raids, Commission had full cooperation of the parties to procedure.

At present, Commission is not able to provide more information, in the interest of further procedure.

Commission for Protection of Competition, following the completion of procedure for investigation of infringement of competition initiated ex officion on July 25, 2013 against companies ”Amm Immovables” d.o.o., Beograd, ”Beteco”, for production, trade amd services d.o.o. Belgrade (Zemun), ”Sagoja” d.o.o. for production, trade and services Belgrade (Zemun) and ”Advena line” d.o.o. Belgrade, passed a decision establishing the existence of competition infringement pursuant to Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition.

These companies have concluded a restrictive agreement by which they pre-arranged individual participation, and by making direct arrangement on prices and other commercial conditions in public procurement of goods – uniforms, shoes and other equipment for the needs of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia in 2013, they infringed competition.

By the decision issued by Commission for Protection of Competition on November 10, 2015, a measure for protection of competition was imposed to these companies in the form of fine in the following amounts:

- company ”Amm Immovables” d.o.o. Beograd, in the amount of 5.1% of the total annual turnover generated in 2012, i.e. in the amount of 15.633.030,00 dinars
- company ”Beteco” d.o.o. Beograd, in the amount of 5.85% of the total annual turnover generated in 2012, i.e. in the amount of 11.194.970,00 dinars
- company ”Sagoja” d.o.o. Beograd, in the amount of 5.1% of the total annual turnover generated in 2012, i.e. in the amount of 7.003.473,00 dinars

In addition, these companies were imposed a measure prohibiting them from participating in the process of public procurement as bidders, for a period of 18 months, starting from the date of the final decision.

By the resolution of the Commission of April 10, 2014, the procedure relating to ”Advena line” d.o.o. Beograd has been suspened, since it submitted the decision of the Business Registers Agency of February 24, 2014 on its removal from the Registrar of Business Entities.

The complete text of the decision is published on the Internet website of the Commission for Protection of Competition.