The Commission for the Protection of Competition in cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia (CCIS) held a one-day presentation of the Guidelines for the development of a business compliance program with regulations on the protection of competition in the Regional Chamber of Commerce of Moravica and Raška District – office in Čačak.

The presentation was the second in a series that will be held throughout Serbia with the aim of familiarizing market participants with the rules in the field of competition protection and guidelines for the development of the Business Compliance Program with regulations on competition protection that the Commission published in December last year.

The current practice of the Commission for Protection of Competition shows that violations of competition often occur due to lack or insufficient knowledge of market participants. On such basis, the need to raise the level of awareness of market participants about the need and ways to comply with regulations in the field of competition was recognized.

In order to assist market participants in the process of adopting a compliance program, the Commission briefly describes and clarifies these “steps” in these workshops and guidelines in the adoption of such programs as well as competition rules.

The presentation in Čačak was attended by more than 30 representatives of market participants and the expert public. The next workshop will be held on November 1 at the Regional Chamber of Commerce of the Nišav, Pirot and Toplic administrative districts in Niš.

The Commission for the Protection of Competition initiated proceedings of investigating violation of competition ex officio against related companies Apcom from Hungary and Apcom Distribution from Belgrade due to reasonable doubt that stated companies set Apple product prices in resale in the Republic of Serbia and performed unannounced raids on four locations.

The Commission for the Protection of Competition analyzed competition status on the market of (1) mobile telephones and tablets, (2) smart watches, (3) accessories (headphones and wireless headphones), (4) smart TV boxes and (5) peripherals (keyboards and mouses), among others, for Apple products in the Republic of Serbia. On this occasion, through insight into publicly available data, it has been concluded that the prices of certain Apple products in the Republic of Serbia are unified with observed retailers of this brand, regardless of whether retailers have certain status of Apple authorized dealer or not, and regardless of sales channel, that is, whether it is classic sales in bricks and mortar stores or online sales.

Also, it has been detected that, in addition to being unified, the prices of Apple products on the market of the Republic of Serbia are higher compared to the prices in the neighboring countries, which is why Commission presumed existence of violation of competition in the form of setting resale prices in the sense of Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition, that is, that companies Apcom Distribution and Apcom from Hungary set the prices of Apple products in resale.

All persons having data, documents or other relevant information that can contribute to establishing the factual situation in this procedure are hereby invited to submit them at the address of the Commission for Protection of Competition, Savska 25 / IV, Belgrade.

Continuing with the work on raising awareness of the need to comply with the regulations on competition protection, the Commission prepared the Model Program of Compliance with the Regulations on Protection of Competition, which accompanies the Guidelines for developing a program of compliance with the regulations on competition protection.

The model poses a starting point for market participants who would be interested in creating a Compliance program, and contains suggestions on which elements to include in the program, how to approach the development and training, as well as which elements require special attention. The intention of such an approach is to further help market participants with facilitated application of the Guidelines and harmonization of their business.

The Commission provides this model as an example and proposal, which is not a mandatory form, in order to facilitate market participants, who decide to develop their own compliance program, to implement such a decision and implement a compliance program in their business. The Commission once again draws attention to the fact that each compliance program should be tailored to the needs of a particular company and adapted to the market or markets in which the company operates.

The Commission for Protection of Competition and the Republic Secretariat for Public Policies have jointly developed a Checklist for assessing the impact of regulations on competition.

The checklist for assessing the existence of the impact of regulations on competition is an auxiliary tool that facilitates the competent authorities, ie proposers of regulations, to correctly assess the existence of the impact of regulations on competition, ie. whether a particular proposal/draft regulation may lead to distortions of competition in the market.

If on the basis of this list it is determined that there may be such an impact, the proposal/draft regulation should be submitted to the Commission for Protection of Competition in order to obtain an opinion.
In accordance with the Law on Protection of Competition, the Commission for Protection of Competition is the only one competent to give opinions to the competent authorities on draft regulations, as well as on valid regulations that have an impact on competition on the market.

The checklist is available on the website of the Commission for Protection of Competition (in Serbian and English) and is an integral part of the Public Policy and Regulatory Impact Assessment Handbook, which is available on the website of the Republic Secretariat for Public Policy.

The Commission for Protection of Competition in cooperation with the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (SCC) presented to market participants new Guidelines for the development of business compliance programs with regulations on competition protection.

The presentation was intended for all market participants in order to introduce them to the rules in the field of competition protection and guidelines for the development of the Business Compliance Program with the regulations on competition protection published by the Commission in December last year.

The presentation in Belgrade was attended by more than 70 representatives of market participants and the expert public. This is the first in a series of workshops that the Commission will organize in cooperation with the SCC on this topic, given that it is important to further build the knowledge of market participants, especially small and medium enterprises on competition policy.

The current practice of the Commission for Protection of Competition shows that violations of competition often occur due to lack or insufficient knowledge of market participants. On such basis, the need to raise the level of awareness of market participants about the need and ways to comply with regulations in the field of competition was recognized.

In order to assist market participants in the process of adopting a compliance compliance program, the Commission briefly describes and clarifies these “steps” in these workshops and guidelines in the adoption of such programs as well as competition rules.

Representatives of the Commission for Protection of Competition took part in a conference organized by the Association of Serbian Banks, where they held a lecture on “Compliance of business with regulations on protection of competition”.

The topics of the lecture were the legal framework, the goal of competition rules, the institutional framework and competencies of the Commission for Protection of Competition, and then the specific risks related to protection that need to be identified and avoided in the course of business compliance, business compliance needs and program guidelines compliance of operations with the regulations on protection of competition adopted by the Commission at the end of 2021.

Counseling “Compliance functions in banks” was organized as the 17th annual conference in Vrnjačka Banja and was attended by representatives of commercial banks, the Administration for the Prevention of Money Laundering, the Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection, the Association for Business Compliance and others.

The Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia has adopted a new Instruction for detecting bid rigging in the public procurement procedure, in the light of the new legal solutions (Law on Public Procurement, amendments to the Criminal Code) that were adopted after the 2011 Instruction.

The Commission for Protection of Competition recognized the need to emphasize and raise the level of awareness among market participants about the need and ways of business compliance with current regulations and regulations in the field of competition protection.

The aim of issuing the Instruction is to prevent and foil the implementation of “rigged or falsified offers” (bid rigging), as the most severe forms of cartels. The consequence of such agreements between competitors – bidders regarding the offered price is the elimination of competition between them, which is why the contracting authority would pay more for the subject of procurement than it would pay under the conditions of competition.

The OECD Guidelines for Combating Bi Rigging in Public Procurement and the Notice of the European Commission in accordance with the needs of cooperation between the Commission and the Public Procurement Office were used in the preparation.

Representatives of the Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia participated on the 21st ICN Annual Conference and 21st International Conference on Competition in Berlin, hosted by the German competition authority (Bundeskartellamt).

The Bundeskartellamt is bringing together two of the most renowned international events dealing with competition policy and competition law enforcement, the International Conference on Competition (ICC) and the Annual Conference of the International Competition Network (ICN). In 1982 the International Conference on Competition was launched by the Bundeskartellamt in Berlin, where the Bundeskartellamt was based at the time, and has since then been held every two years. This year the Bundeskartellamt was also hosted the annual conference of the ICN, the International Competition Network founded in 2001, which today counts 140 member agencies from 130 jurisdictions.

The main topics were the issue of relationship between competition law and policy with other areas, primarily consumer protection and access and use of confidential data, regulatory and other measures necessary to establish and strengthen competition on digital platform markets, as well as other current issues from the areas of anti-trust, concentration assessment, competition protection advocacy, etc.

Approximately 450 participants from over 80 countries attended the conferences, highest representatives of competition authorities, judges, university professors, anti-trust lawyers, representatives of German ministries and other governmental bodies, international companies, etc.

The Commission for Protection of Competition initiated an ex officio procedure of investigation of infringement of competition against the company Polet-keramika Novi Bečej, in order to examine the existence of restrictive agreements referred to in Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition, which restricts competition on the market of wholesale ceramic tiles in the Republic of Serbia, and performed an unannounced investigation.

The commission conducted an analysis of the state of competition in the distribution channels of ceramic tiles and sanitary ware, within which it also obtained sales contracts that the manufacturer Polet-keramika Novi Bečej concluded with buyers for further sale. The analysis of contracts, their addendums and annexes revealed provisions that point to the existence of a practice known as resale pricing by the manufacturer/seller, which restricts the buyer to make independent business decisions related to pricing policy, which is a restrictive agreement, constituting an infringement of competition under Article 10 of the Law.

In the investigation procedure, the commission shall undertake all necessary evidentiary actions in order to correctly determine the factual situation, examine the existence of a competition infringement, and make a final decision upon finalization of the procedure.

All persons having data, documents or other relevant information that can contribute to establishing the factual situation in this procedure are hereby invited to submit them at the address of the Commission for Protection of Competition, Savska 25 / IV, Belgrade.

Representatives of the Commission for Protection of Competition held a lecture at a webinar entitled “Concentration of market participants and effect on the process of realization of assets in bankruptcy proceedings” organized by the Bankruptcy Supervision Agency, with the support of the World Bank.

The aim of this webinar is to introduce the participants to the law on competition governing the area of concentration control, which can occur in bankruptcy proceedings.

111 bankruptcy administrators and judges of commercial courts from all over Serbia took part in the webinar.