On the occasion of celebrating the Competition Day, the Commission for Protection of Competition prepared a graphical presentation, of the most important work results for the last ten years (2013 – 2022) based on its Annual Reports.

Special significance has been on the results of the three-years’ work activities carried out in the conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic, which were compared to three years preceding the pandemic, to capture its impact on the Commission’s work.

The analysis showed that the Commission (starting from 2020 as the first full year of the IV Cconvocation of the Commission Council), accomplished significant results, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, with the same number of employees, compared to three previous years, as follows:

• Positive effect on the RS budget has increased by 62%.
• Number of decisions determining competition infringements which were not annulled has increased by 100%.
• Monetary amount of imposed fines in decisions whichthat were not annulled by courts has increased by 72%.
• Efficiency of imposition of competition protection measures has increased from 19% to 69%
• Number of processed merger control cases has increased by 25%.
• Number of sector inquiries has increased by 50%.
• Number of conducted dawn-raids has grown by 36%
• Work productivity of the employed staff has grown by 30%.

This instruction shall regulate in more detail the content and method of submitting a request for determining the measure of protection of data sources and/or specific data, prescribed by the provisions of Article 45 of the Law on Protection of Competition (for the purposes of this instruction: request for data protection).

Data protection implies that the protected data will not be publicly published, that is, that they will be omitted from the decisions and acts of the Commission for the Protection of Competition that are publicly published, as well as that they cannot be viewed or copied when inspecting the case files, regardless of whether they are in printed or electronic form, in Serbian or a foreign language of the original document.

Protected data shall not have the property of information of public importance in the sense of the law regulating free access to information of public importance.

Pursuant to Article 47 of the Law on the Protection of Competition and the Decision of the Council, the Commission for the Protection of Competition conducted a sectoral analysis of the state of competition in the cement and concrete markets in the Republic of Serbia in the period from 2018 to 2021.

The subject of the analysis was to determine of the relationship between competitors, both on the cement market (producers and importers) and on the concrete market (producers), assessment of their market share and relative strength, analysis of commercial policy and contractual relations with suppliers and customers, as well as the effects that such relations can have on the state of competition in the market.
The goal of the research, when it comes to the cement market, was to comprehensively consider the changes in the market structure and dynamics of competition in the market in question, in relation to the period covered by the analysis conducted in 2018. When it comes to the concrete market, the main goal of the analysis was to determine the degree of vertical interdependence with the cement market as an upstream market, taking into account the existence of three vertically integrated market participants, and the effects that vertical connection can have on prices and conditions of competition
in the market.

For the purposes of the analysis, data was collected and processed from three cement producers (two of which are also concrete producers), five cement importers (one of which is a concrete producer) and 22 concrete producers.
The Commission would like to thank all market participants who promptly provided the requested information in the course of the analysis. Given the importance of the cement industry for the development of construction and overall industrial development, as well as the conclusions and recommendations of this analysis, the Commission will continue to monitor with special attention the behavior of participants in the relevant markets and circumstances that could indicate violations of the Law on Protection of Competition.

The National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, at the Second Extraordinary Session of the Thirteenth legislature, adopted the Annual Activity Report of the Commission for the Protection of Competition for the year 2021 together with the Proposal for the conclusion of the Committee for Economy, Regional Development, Trade, Tourism and Energy as of November 4, 2022.

An overview of the Commission’s most important activities includes procedures for determining competition infringements; exemptions of restrictive agreements from prohibition, merger examination procedures; implementation of sectoral and analysis of competition conditions on individual markets, giving opinions, activities of the Commission in the EU accession process related to chapter 8; promotion of competition protection rules to the public; domestic and international cooperation, including the Commission’s activities on international projects.

Representatives of the Commission took part in a round table organized as part of the Jean Monnet Competition Law Center of Excellence project regarding the latest developments in the field of competition law and policy in the European Union and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (” Recent developments in Competition Law and Policy in EU and CEE Countries: Open issues and Challenges“) at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.

The round table presented experiences and challenges in the areas of competition protection and control of state aid in Croatia, Serbia, Moldova, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania, with the presence of over 50 representatives of banks, financial institutions, insurance companies and the academic community.

Pursuant to Article 47 of the Law on Competition Protection, the Commission for the Protection of Competition conducted a sectoral analysis of the state of competition on the market of digital platforms for mediation in the sale and delivery of mainly restaurant food and other products in the period 2020-2021.

The subject of the analysis was determining the relationship between competitors on the market of digital platforms for mediation in the sale and delivery of mainly restaurant food and other products, which included the analysis of the regulatory framework, assessment of market shares, analysis of contractual relations and commercial policies of market participants.

The main goal of the analysis was to review and analyze the state of competition on the market in question and point out potential problems in terms of limiting or any other type of infringement or prevention of competition.

An integral part of the Report on the sectoral analysis of the state of competition in the market of digital platforms for mediating the sale and delivery of mainly restaurant food and other products consists of conclusions and recommendations.

The Commission would like to thank all market participants who provided the requested information in the course of the analysis.

The Commission for Protection of Competition has launched an ex officio investigation of a competition infringement against the company VAILLANT doo from Belgrade, a distributor of heating equipment of the “Vaillant” and “Protherm” brands, due to the reasonable assumption that the said company determines the resale prices of the said brands in the Republic Serbia, and carried out a dawn raid on its premises. The Commission compared the wholesale and retail prices from the price list of Vaillant with the retail prices displayed on the websites of certain authorized distributors and determined that they are identical, both among all of the observed retailers, and to the prices from the price list available on the website of Vaillant. At the same time, based on the available data, the company Vaillant is not present on the retail market of products of the “Vaillant” and “Protherm” brands, but only through its distributors. Based on the analysis and evaluation of the collected data, the Commission reasonably assumed the existence of a competition infringement, in the sense of Article 10 of the Law, in the form of a prohibited restrictive agreement, by which the company Vaillant determines the resale prices of the products of the “Vaillant” and “Protherm” brands, i.e. to its distributors. All persons who possess data, documents or other relevant information which may contribute to establishing the facts of this case are hereby invited to submit them at the address of the Commission for Protection of Competition, Savska 25 / IV, Belgrade.

As part of the continuation of the cooperation of the Commission for the Protection of Competition with the Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCC), on spreading awareness of the need to harmonize business operations with regulations on competition protection, on the website of the Chamber, Business in accordance with the rules of competition, Guidelines for the preparation of the business compliance program with the regulations on competition protection are available, as well as the Model of the business compliance program with the regulations on competition protection that follows the Guidelines.

In addition to the Guidelines and Models, there are lists for identifying illegal conduct, brochures in pdf format, presentations used at workshops in cooperation with the Chamber in the course of 2022, as well as educational video materials aimed at familiarizing market participants with the rules of competition protection. Such availability of materials should enable market participants to assess and reduce their exposure to the risks of violations of the Law on Protection of Competition in their operations.

The past practice of the Commission shows that competition violations often occur due to lack or insufficient knowledge of market participants. Therefore, the need to raise the level of awareness among market participants about the necessity and ways to comply one’s business with regulations in the field of competition protection, was recognized.