Under Article 47 of the Law on Protection of Competition, the Commission launched a sector inquiry into competitive conditions on the tour operators market.

The subject of the sector inquiry was the establishment of relations between competitors on the market concerned, tour operators, including the estimate of their market share and relative power, in addition to the analysis of (contractual) relations between tour operators and travel guarantee providers.

The main purpose of the sector inquiry was the identification of weaknesses in the market structure and potential issues in terms of intensifying competition, restriction or any other form of disruption or prevention of competition affecting the undertakings.

The market analysis was conducted based on the information obtained, in particular concerning the provision of travel guarantees necessary for the issuance of travel licenses under the Law on Tourism.

The Commission wishes to express its gratitude to all undertakings providing information during the inquiry drafting process.

To keep the public accurately informed about the Commission’s operations, a response was provided to the Pištaljka.rs web portal on the article “Commission for Protection of Competition in Business Dealings with a Company That It Has Charged for Bid Rigging”, published on 5 May 2021.

1. The Commission for Protection of Competition did not conduct a public procurement procedure or selected bidders for the procurement of an official agency’s vehicle of the Škoda brand, carried out in 2018. Since the Commission is one of the contracting authorities from the List of Contracting Authorities specified by the Government of the Republic of Serbia, on behalf of which the Administration for Joint Services of the Republic Bodies conducts centralized public procurements and signs framework agreements with suppliers, it has no rights or possibility to independently conduct a public procurement procedure or select suppliers. Following a centralized public procurement carried out by the authorized authority, the Commission as a user under the framework agreement signs an individual agreement with the selected supplier.

2. The Commission for Protection of Competition imposed a measure for protection of competition against undertakings – Auto kuća Čačak and others, for standard contracts signed with its dealers/repairers that contain the provisions on resale price maintenance (RPM), which is recognized as a restrictive agreement and an infringement of competition referred to in Article 10(2/1) of the Law on Protection of Competition, as indicated in the enacting terms of the CPC Decision (http://www.kzk.gov.rs/kzk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Resenje-Auto-Cacak-i-dr.-converted.pdf), and not as a bid-rigging in public procurements.