On October 10, 2024, the Commission for Protection of Competition initiated proceedings against DELHAIZE SERBIA DOO,PRIVREDNO DRUŠTVO ZA POSLOVNE USLUGE MERCATOR-S DOO BELGRADE, UNIVEREXPORT EXPORT-IMPORT DOO NOVI SAD, and PROIZVODNO I TRGOVINSKO PREDUZEĆE DIS DOO KRNJEVO, and conducted dawn raids at their premises. Dawn raids were also simultaneously conducted at the business premises of Cenoteka, as a third party. The proceedings were initiated based on the Commission’s reasonable assumption that the said retail chains committed competition infringement by entering into a restrictive agreement as defined in Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition.

Namely, the Commission is carrying out a Sectoral Analysis of the state and competitive conditions in the markets for certain food products within the Republic of Serbia, covering the period from 2018 to 2022. In light of certain findings that underscored the need for further in-depth analysis, the Commission expanded its examination to assess the competitive conditions in the retail market for a wider range of food products.

A comprehensive analysis was carried out by tracking selected products from the retailers currently facing proceedings. Publicly available data from financial reports released by the Serbian Business Registers Agency indicate that these retailers collectively represent more than 50% of the retail market in the Republic of Serbia.

Thus, the Commission, over several months of monitoring price movements for 35 selected products, found that the prices for the observed products were identical across the retail chains.
Subsequently, in August 2024, the Commission compared prices for 45 products among the parties involved in the proceedings, including an additional retailer.

Based on all of the conducted analyses, the Commission was able to draw the following conclusions:

• the retail market in Serbia saw a value growth in the period from April 2023 to March 2024, while simultaneously experiencing a modest decrease in volume.
• in the period from April 2023 to March 2024, the increase in retail prices was nearly twice as high as inflationary pressures.
• in the period from 2016 to 2023, a substantial increase in revenue and gross margins was observed among the market participants under review, which is further substantiated by data regarding their operating profit.
• throughout the multi-month monitoring period from April to September 2024, the regular prices of eight products (milk, yogurt, oil, flour, sugar, eggs, coffee, and bananas) among all observed retailers were found to be either identical or similar, despite differing procurement conditions.
• the value of the consumer basket containing 45 selected products shows only slight variations among the parties involved in the proceedings, while being significantly lower at the retail establishment with the least favorable procurement conditions.

Based on the comprehensive findings, the Commission reasonably inferred that the indicators observed in the retail market resulted from a lack of competitive pressure among the examined retailers, indicating that these entities may have entered into a restrictive agreement as stipulated in Article 10 of the Law. This conclusion is particularly supported by the fact that the only form of competition for the observed products is price competition, which is entirely absent under conditions of identical regular and promotional prices.

The Commission takes this opportunity to emphasize that, in its work—especially in proving tacit, prohibited agreements—it has access to various mechanisms that require a certain degree of confidentiality. Consequently, the Commission is unable to publicly announce its potential intentions concerning actions in specific cases to preserve the integrity of the proceedings. For the same reason, the Commission refrains from commenting on media appearances or statements made by individuals or organizations, whether accurate or inaccurate, to avoid sending a “signal” to market participants that could jeopardize the proceedings before the Commission.

All individuals possessing data, documents, or other relevant information that may be pertinent to establishing the factual circumstances in the aforementioned proceedings are kindly invited to submit such information to the Commission for Protection of Competition, located at 25 Savska Street, Belgrade.