The fact that everyone in the Republic of Serbia can pursue criminal charges against the Commission for Protection of Competition and its officials cannot be disputed. However, in this particular case, when the Citizens’ Association “Car go” has filed an antitrust complaint before the Commission, immediately followed by a criminal action brought against CPC President Miloje Obradović as head of this institution, is perceived as an inappropriate form of pressure on the work of the Commission as an independent state authority.

It is symptomatic that “Car go” has opted to pursue criminal charges on the very day when the Commission for Protection of Competition has issued a notice on the absence of grounds for acting on their antitrust complaint.

We would hereby like to inform the public that the Commission for Protection of Competition will not, nor has it ever in the past, reach its decisions based on pressure of any kind, but solely pursuant to the provisions of the Law on Protection of Competition, for which it was given a mandate by the National Assembly of Serbia.

The Commission for Protection of Competition believes that legal requirements for the opening of antitrust proceedings have not been met, nor that the case merits further investigation by the Commission based on an antitrust initiative submitted by Car Go Technologies d.o.o. Beograd against the Taxi Association of Serbia “Satus”, Trade Association of Taxi Entrepreneurs of Belgrade, and the Contractual Taxi Chamber of Commerce of Serbia.

The Commission has notified the party on the matter in the Notice on the outcome of the initiative (attached below).

President of the Commission for Protection of Competition Dr Miloje Obradović and CPC Council member Čedomir Radojčić have met today with Professor Alberto Heimler, one of the world’s leading competition and antitrust experts. Professor Heimler currently holds the position of Chairman of the Working Party on Competition and Regulation and Vice-Chairman of the Competition Committee of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The topics of discussion related to the exchange of experiences in the field of regulation and competition enforcement interplay, as well as improvement of the Commission’s practice in assessing provisions about competition in regulations passed in the Republic of Serbia. The latter represents one of the priorities in activities pursued by the Commission for Protection of Competition since only a pro-competitive legislative framework can bring better guarantees for a level playing field in the Serbian market.

The Commission’s guest presented the scope of his activities to the President and CPC Council member, in particular, the work within the Steering Group of the International Competition Network (ICN) and his activities as Co-Chair of the Working Group on the Operational Framework.

Professor Heimler, author of several important papers on antimonopoly and regulatory issues published in the top international academic journals, will hold a series of workshops in the Commission under the Twinning program, followed by expert-level discussions and exchange of experiences on competition policy and law in Serbia and globally.