NALED and the Commission for Protection of Competition have organized a round table on the subject: “Significance and Challenges of Retail Trade Sector Development in Serbia in terms of Competition Policy”. The roundtable is organized so that representatives of companies operating in the retail trade sector in Serbia would be introduced to relevant details of a comprehensive inquiry project regarding retail trade market in Serbia instituted by the Commission for Protection of Competition; and also with the goal of calling upon those involved in this sector’s operations to present their proposals and suggestions toward drafting of this document, which is being prepared for the first time in our country. In addition, this inquiry encompasses the end-user and supply retail trade markets, focusing on relations between retailers and their suppliers, as well as the influence of private-label products affecting competition.

Participants of the roundtable event were welcomed by the President of the Commission for Protection of Competition, Dr. Miloje Obradović, and Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of NALED, Goran Knežević, while the Head of Department for Economic Inquiries of the CPC, Dr. Siniša Milošević and his associates have introduced the audience with the implementation plan and goals of this sector inquiry.

President of the Commission for Protection of Competition, Dr. Miloje Obradović has emphasized that the Commission considers this task as highly significant, both in terms of the importance that this sector holds for the overall county’s economic activity, and concrete benefits for consumers, which is ultimately one of the core elements of an efficient competition policy.

Retail trade represents an economic sector with most prominent effect of a fair level playing field affecting consumers directly, having in mind that retail trade can achieve a direct contact with them, and concerning the rule of end-buyers ultimately bearing all the burden. Hence, I believe this inquiry can also contribute to the increased trust of consumers in undertakings directly if they are assured that everybody operates in accordance with the fair rules of the game, said President Obradović. – The Commission will extensively investigate current market structures, keeping in mind the great number of changes and takeovers occurring in the last decade, which will ultimately contribute to the increasingly improved and efficient protection of competition, thus enabling equal business operating conditions for all.

Participants recognized a joint interest in creating a realistic insight into conditions and relations on the food, beverages and tobacco retail trade markets, because the public often misperceives market shares in the retail trade sector, which harms and disturbs the reputation of undertakings directly, but also questions the efficiency of the Commission for Protection of Competition as well.


Representatives of the retail trade sector and suppliers participated at this roundtable, as well as delegates of the Ministry of Trade, law offices and expert public, while the event was organized within the Working group for Chapter 8 “Competition Policy” of the National Convent, chaired by the NALED.

In accordance with competences from Article 35 of the Law on Protection of Competition, the Commission for Protection of Competition has instituted proceeding for investigating competition infringement ex officio against companies “B2M” LLC – Belgrade, “Grafo Trade” LLC – Belgrade, “Trgodunav” LLC – Belgrade, “Master Clean Express” LLC – Palić, and JSC CI “Panonija“ – Pančevo.

As part of the proceeding, authorized officials of the Commission for Protection of Competition have conducted dawn raids on several locations of the listed undertakings in Belgrade, with the goal of collecting additional information.

During the proceeding, the Commission will investigate if the listed companies, as bidders participating in the public procurement tendering for the provision of consumables for individual and collective hygiene maintenance issued by the Ministry of Defense, have colluded as per sale prices and other trade related conditions to be implemented on the public procurement market.

All persons in possession of data, documentation or other relevant information that might contribute to the fact-finding in this proceeding are called upon to submit the said to the Commission for Protection of Competition to the address: 25/IV Savska St., Belgrade.

President of the Commission for Protection of Competition, Dr. Miloje Obradović, received a visit of the Romanian Ambassador to Serbia, H.E. Oana-Cristina Popa.

Dr. Obradović introduced Ambassador Popa to current activities, as well as plans of the Commission for Protection of Competition directed toward advancing and promoting competition policy in our country.

During the talks, President Obradović emphasized that excellent cooperation achieved by the Commission for Protection of Competition with the Romanian Competition Council, this year resulted in the Romanian competition authority titled as the honorable “Guest host” during the Competition Day of Serbia, ultimately results in more qualitative development of the institution he heads. This cooperation is of particular importance bearing in mind the fact that the Romanian Competition Council this year marks the 20th year operations anniversary, with the first ten years operating as an authority of the EU accession country, while during the last decade as its member.

To this effect, both parties jointly identified the need for intensive cooperation between the two authorities to be further advanced. The meeting was also attended by Marko Obradović, member of the Council of the Commission for Protection of Competition, Mihaela Osorio, Deputy Head of Mission, and Stefan Imre, Minister Counselor at Embassy of Romania in Belgrade.

The 16th Annual conference of the International Competition Network (ICN) held in Portugal was attended by Mr. Čedomir Radojčić, member of the Council of the Commission for Protection of Competition.

Nominated topics of this year’s conference of the International Competition Network, comprising of competition authorities from around the world as its members, are chosen in accordance with current challenges arising from the implementation of competition policy. In such manner, more than 600 participants had an opportunity to share experiences from the competition policy implementation processes. Activities that might contribute to increasing successfulness of leniency programs were particularly discussed, as well as tools that might enhance competition advocacy related efforts.

The focus of discussions were placed on transformed conditions of competition authorities’ operational activities brought by globalization and new technologies, bearing in mind the practice demonstrating that globalization is leading towards increased protectionism in developed economies, while the new digital age is also bringing considerable changes in the notion of competition, since in the Internet-operated world, monopolistic position is becoming the rule, rather than the exception.

At the special ceremony held during the conference, the Commission for Protection of Competition received the Honorable Mention Award of the 2016-2017 Competition Advocacy Contest – Elevating Competition Policies in Economic Policy Agendas: “Innovative Advocacy Strategies to Address Market Challenges”, launched by the International Competition Network (ICN) and the World Bank Group (WBG). Submitted story, written by Ms. Gordana Bulatović, Chief of Staff to the Office of the Commission President and Coordinator of the International Cooperation Affairs of the Commission, was entered into one of the categories presented – “Implementing advocacy strategies at multiple levels (regional, national, subnational – economic wide and sector specific)”.

This year’s conference program that gathered more than 600 representatives of competition authorities worldwide, is jointly prepared by the International Competition Network (ICN) and the Portuguese Competition Authority (AdC).

President of the Commission for Protection of Competition, Dr. Miloje Obradović, has presented a research paper on the topic: “The role of the Commission for Protection of Competition in the economic and regulatory reforms: Current trends and future challenges” during the academic conference entitled “Structural reforms and the role of regulatory authorities in Serbia”. The coauthors of this research paper were Dr. Siniša Milošević, Head of the Deparmetn for Economic Inquiries of the Commission, and Dr. Dragan Lončar, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade.

In his address, Dr. Obradović presented main elements on the functioning of the Commission for Protection of Competition, in addition to the main provisions of the Law on Protection of Competition. Particular emphasis was placed on the cooperation with regulatory authorities and public institutions and organizations, but also on directions of future developments concerning competition policy in Serbia, keeping in mind the elements of the European Commission’s new draft directive aimed toward enhancing operations of the EU competition authority.

The main goal of the academic conference entitled “Structural reforms and the role of regulatory authorities” was to present research results as potential contributions to creating a favorable institutional framework and foundations for more efficient economic development of Serbia. The organizer of this event was the Scientific Society of Economists of Serbia, in cooperation with the Academy of Economic Studies and Faculty of Economics in Belgrade.

The conference was attended by the University of Belgrade’s professors, representatives of independent and regulatory authorities, as well as independent economic experts.

Council of the Commission for Protection of Competition enacted a decision establishing the infringement of competition and imposing the measure for protection of competition to companies Vital from Vrbas and Victoriaoil JSC from Šid, on the basis of concluded restrictive agreement that limits and controls production and market of edible sunflower oil.

It is established that the above-mentioned companies as competing parties on the markets of production and sale of edible sunflower oil, have concluded the Contract on business cooperation, wherewith have created a framework for harmonizing behavior of undertakings, resulting in a restrictive nature of the said Contact pursuant to the Law on Protection of Competition.

The measure for protection of competition is imposed in the form of commitment payment of a monetary sum to companies Victoriaoil and Vital, in the amount of RSD 23m and 8.6m, respectively.

Member of the Council of the Commission for Protection of Competition, Mr. Čedomir Radojčić, participated at the Third workshop and coordination meeting of the Multidisciplinary team on the topic: Fraud in public procurement procedures / Financial frauds and public corruptions. Mr. Radojčić held a lecture on the occasion: “Competition policy and public procurements: The role of the Commission for Protection of Competition”.

Multidisciplinary team (MDT) as its objective sets to mutually introduce representatives of various public institutions, as well as governmental organizations and authorities, to educate members on the possibilities and fields of expertise of other organizations, along with bolstering communication and coordination between those organizations – with the ultimate objective of identifying and running more successful investigation and criminal prosecution of frauds in public procurement procedures and other cases of public corruption.


The workshop and operating activities of the MDT are organized in the form of meetings, in cooperation with representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe – Mission to Serbia (OSCE) and US Justice Department at the US Embassy in Belgrade.

Beside representatives of the Commission, meeting was attended by representatives of the Supreme Court of Cassation, Prosecutor’s Office, State Audit Institution, Public Procurement Office, Administration for Fighting Organized Crime of the Ministry of Interior of Serbia, as well as reps of other institutions.

President of the Commission for Protection of Competition, Dr. Miloje Obradović, and Mr. Vladimir Koltovič, Minister of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade, have signed the Memorandum on Mutual Understanding and Cooperation in the Competition Policy Area between these two institutions.


Implementation of this agreement opens the possibility for more intensive cooperation in the competition policy area, along with the development of bilateral relations in addition to securing conditions for efficient functioning of product and service markets between institutions in charge of implementation of competition policy in Serbia and Belarus.

The two parties have agreed on their mutual interest to assist one another in implementing antimonopoly, i.e. competition related legislation and in the development of competition policy by exchanging experiences and opinions.
Also, the Memorandum envisages the exchange of staff, organization of seminars, forums, training courses and other similar manifestations, as well as exchanging publications and other documents.

The Commission for Protection of Competition is very active in cooperating with other competition authorities, both from the EU member states and other non-EU countries. The Memorandum on cooperation with Belarus is the 12th agreement that the Commission has signed with competition governing authorities or institutions of other countries.

The Memorandum is signed during the session of the Belarusian-Serbian Intergovernmental Commission on Trade and Economic Cooperation, held in Belgrade on April 18-19.

On April 12, 2017, Council of the Commission for Protection of Competition enacted a decision on the implementation of retail market sector inquiry.


According to the European Commission’s reports, the role of retail sector is of key importance for the European economic development, and in this regard individual EU countries (Germany, Great Britain, Finland…) continuously monitor competition related fluctuations in the context of observed sector developments.

The sector inquiry will contribute to the establishment of relations between retail market competing parties at the local, regional and national level. Also, this sector inquiry will encompass the wholesale market. This implies the estimate of market share and relative power of undertakings, analysis of contractual relations between suppliers and trade chains, in addition to analyzing effects of those relations on the market competition.
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The issue of particular importance will be the relation between retailers and their suppliers in terms of establishing differences in the degree of negotiating power between small and large trade chains, as well as between those operating at the national, regional and local level. The second important aspect is the issue of suppliers positioning that can also be perceived via the likelihood and manner of exerting the influence on shelving display size in retail stores, or imposing potential obligation to pay compensations (slotting fee, risk of de-slotting when suppliers refuse to reduce prices or change other important terms and conditions of payment, and ‘pay-to-stay’ fees). The issue of rebates policy will be analyzed in detail, and particularly in regard to setting the types of approved rebates, amounts and criteria for their approval.


Keeping in mind that the development of private-label products is a trend that can be identified on the retail market, influence of product brands on consumer selection will be also analyzed, along with the profitability and negotiating power of trade chains and suppliers positioning.

And last but not less important, results of this sector inquiry will enable implementation of ex-post analysis of substantial concentrations previously executed in this sector.