The Commission for Protection of Competition has organized a public debate in Niš, dedicated to examining potential solutions towards the improvement of competition policy and law in the Republic of Serbia.
The public debate is organized as part of the project “Increasing economic growth through support to the promotion of competition policy”, supported by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Commission for Protection of Competition has instituted proceedings against 11 companies providing roadworthiness testing and vehicle classification services in the territory of the City of Čačak. The Commission reasonably assumed that respective undertakings have colluded over the prices of their services, which may represent an infringement of competition in the form of entering into restrictive agreements from Article 10 of the Law.
All persons in possession of data, documents or other relevant information which could contribute to the accurate fact-finding in the proceedings are called upon to submit said to the Commission for Protection of Competition, 25/IV Savska St., Belgrade.
Improvements to the competition law and policy in the Republic of Serbia in the context of the preparation of a new legal framework governing this specific area was the topic of discussion at the meeting between the Commission for Protection of Competition and companies, members of the American Chamber of Commerce in Serbia.
On the occasion, President of the Commission for Protection of Competition, Dr Miloje Obradović, together with Čedomir Radojčić, CPC Council member, and Gordana Lukić, Head of the Merger Investigation Division, who are otherwise members of the Working Group for drafting new competition act, has presented to the audience details on the motivation and key directions of development of future legal solutions.
It is established that a new legal framework governing competition policy is necessary against the background of continued harmonization with the EU Acquis, but also for the strengthening of current institutional capacities of the Commission for Protection of Competition and efficiency of enforcement mechanisms in light of securing a level playing field and further enhancement of legal certainty of undertakings. It is underlined that this is the first time that all relevant stakeholders are taking part in the drafting of a new regulation.
The Commission for Protection of Competition has conducted an inquiry into competitive conditions on the cement production and sales market in the territory of the Republic of Serbia for the period 2014-2017. For the inquiry-related purposes, the Gray (Portland) cement market is identified as the relevant product market. The primary objective of this inquiry was to look into the structure and dynamics of competition on the market concerned.
Within the Gray (Portland) cement market, the Commission has specifically analyzed the production, import, export, and wholesale segments.
The inquiry used data provided by the Ministry of Finance-Customs Administration on the cement import and export, publicly available data of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia on the Grey cement production and sales, as well as data provided by undertakings, cement manufacturers and importers, namely: CRH (Srbija) d.o.o. from Popovac, Lafarge beočinska fabrika cementa d.o.o. from Beočin, “TITAN” d.o.o. from Kosjerić, CEMEX SRB DOO from Niš, and NEXE BETON DOO NOVI SAD from Veternik.
The Commission hereby expresses its gratitude to all undertakings that have regularly submitted the requested data during the inquiry drafting process, and also calls all undertakings and other members of the expert public to send their commentaries to the report, to the following email address: office.kzk@kzk.gov.rs, with annotation: The commentary to the cement market inquiry.
Considering the cement industry significance for the development of civil engineering and overall industrial development, as well as conclusions of this inquiry, the Commission will continue to monitor the behavior of this market’s undertakings with due care, and circumstances potentially indicating the infringement of the Law on Protection of Competition.
Pursuant to Article 58 of the Law on Protection of Competition, the Commission for Protection of Competition hereby publishes the Notice of Filing of the Proposal of Commitments, which companies VISA Incorporated, VISA International Service Association and VISA CEMEA Holdings Limited as legal entities representing the VISA payment organization, are voluntarily willing to undertake in order to eliminate possible infringement of competition, with a call inviting all interested parties to submit commentaries, views and opinions in writing with reference to the commitments proposed.
President of the Commission for Protection of Competition Dr Miloje Obradović has received a visit from the EBRD’s new Director for the Western Balkans, Zsuzsanna Hargitai.
Dr Obradović updated Director Hargitai on the Commission’s activities to date, as well as plans directed at advancing the competition policy in our country. During the talks, the Commission President has specifically underlined the benefits for the Commission from the existing cooperation with the EBRD. He has also informed the interlocutor of the status of currently implemented project “Capacity Building for the Serbian Commission for Protection of Competition”, supported by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
The EBRD Director for the Western Balkans has underlined that this international institution has a good cooperation with the Commission, and that the aim is to further improve it and provide a support to reforms in the light of Serbia’s EU accession perspective.
It is concluded that both institutions should place additional efforts in the coming period in order to strengthen competition policy in the Republic of Serbia with a view to advancing our country’s business environment.
The Commission for Protection of Competition has instituted two proceedings against seven undertakings who have participated in a public procurement procedure published by PE „Elektroprivreda Srbije” in two groups of bidders. The parties in the proceedings have concluded joint bidding agreements relating to the public procurement whose subject was the provision of hauling services for the remaining equipment of used excavator and stacker from FR Germany to the Republic of Serbia.
One of the proceedings is instituted against companies Bora Kečić – specijalni transporti d.o.o. Beograd, Union Šped d.o.o. Beograd and Bata d.o.o. Trešnjevac (Kanjiža), and the other against companies Bora Kečić – vangabaritni transporti d.o.o. Beograd, Preduzeće za puteve Kragujevac d.o.o. Kragujevac, Transportšped d.o.o. Beograd and Agrorit d.o.o. Melenci (Zrenjanin).
All persons in possession of data, documents or other relevant information which could contribute to the accurate fact-finding in these proceedings are called upon to submit said to the Commission for Protection of Competition to the address 25/IV Savska St., Belgrade
The Commission for Protection of Competition has organized a public debate in Kragujevac dedicated to examining potential solutions towards the improvement of competition policy and law in the Republic of Serbia.
Professors of the Faculty of Law and Faculty of Economics of the Universities of Kragujevac, Niš and Novi Sad, Dr Milan Kostić, Prof Dr Boban Stojanović and Dr Sandra Fišer-Šobot, respectively, took part in the panel discussion, as well as representatives of the City of Kragujevac, companies and business clusters from the Region of Šumadija.
Gordana Lukić, member of the Working Group on drafting new competition act and Head of the Merger Investigation Division, began by welcoming the audience and underlying that the new legal framework governing competition policy should enable the improvement of procedural rights of the parties in specific administrative procedures initiated before the Commission, with due regard for specificities of the proceedings from that area, and in particular for the need for economy and efficiency.
It is established that a new legal framework governing competition policy is needed, both against the background of continued harmonization against EU acquis, and on account of strengthening the existing institutional capacity of the Commission for Protection of Competition. It is also underlined that this is the first time that all relevant stakeholders are taking part in drafting new regulation, specifying that besides representatives of the Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications and experts from the Ministries of Economy, Justice, Public Administration and the Commission for Protection of Competition, the Working Group is comprised of representatives from numerous associations of undertakings as well.
The public debate is organized as part of the project “Increasing economic growth through support to the promotion of competition policy”, supported by the Royal Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Further three more public debates are planned, to be held in Niš, Novi Sad and Belgrade.
President of the Commission for Protection of Competition, Dr Miloje Obradović, gave a keynote address at the “Competition and Personal Data Protection” conference, traditionally held by the Law Firm Karanović & Partners and the German Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom.
This year’s conference was focused on the experiences in competition law enforcement in the context of interplay between the competition law enforcement and economics, as seen through the prism of Serbian and EU experiences, state aid control, as well as on the implementation of new legal solutions governing personal data protection.
Dr Obradović underlined, inter alia, that the contribution of effective competition policy and law enforcement in promoting economic growth and well-being of citizens of the Republic of Serbia remains challenging, but that the Commission is fully aware of the importance of its mission and assigned tasks.
One of the conference’s panelists was Marko Obradović, CPC Council member, who informed the audience about the Commission’s plans and perspectives against the background of competition policy improvement in the Republic of Serbia.
By participating at the inaugural meeting, the Commission for Protection of Competition has supported the start of operations of the Corporate Compliance Association. The Association gathers companies from various industries opened to further advance their related know-hows and more efficiently harmonize respective business operations against the current regulatory framework.
It is in the interest of the Commission to advocate and promote harmonization of business operations of undertakings against competition rules, since such conduct correspondingly reduces the risk of infringing competition which occurs, inter alia, also due to the fact that companies lack practices harmonized against competition rules and regulations, said Dr Miloje Obradović, President of the Commission for Protection of Competition, in its opening speech given at the inaugural meeting.
The compliance also affects the growth of business in full and complete conformity with competition rules, and likewise enables the internal identification of potential anticompetitive behaviors. Since the prevention of such adverse consequences is among the primary objectives of the Corporate Compliance Association, the Commission for Protection of Competition strongly supports its establishment and operations, underlined Dr Obradović.
Within the framework of the Association’s inaugural meeting, a panel discussion was held on “Why is corporate compliance important for each of us?”. The goal of this panel session, where Čedomir Radojčić, CPC Council member, has taken part as well, was to raise the level of awareness on the importance of this topic by defining the purpose and meaning of corporate compliance, but also to present concrete examples on its implementation in specific business operations of various undertakings.
Representatives of undertakings involved in relevant corporate compliance-related activities also took an active role during the panel session, as well as representatives of the private and public sector, the Association of Serbian Banks and the University of Belgrade Faculty of Law.