The Commission for Protection of Competition initiated ex officio proceedings against the company HOTELSKO, GOSTITELJSKO I TURISTIČKO PREDUZEĆE MOSKVA DOO BEOGRAD (STARI GRAD), in order to assess the concentration which was implemented even though it was not approved in accordance with the Law on Protection of Competition, and which had, according to the reasonable assumption, resulted from the acquisition of control by the company HOTELSKO, UGOSTITELJSKO I TURISTIČKO PREDUZEĆE MOSKVA over the operations of Hotel “Tonanti” in Vrnjačka Banja, which may represent an independent business entity.
In the investigation proceedings, the Commission will evaluate the criteria prescribed by the Law (Art. 19 of the Law on Protection of Competition) which determine the permissibility of a concentration, and in particular, the circumstance that the concentration under review had been implemented, but not notified, which was the obligation of market participants. The law stipulates that concentrations of market participants are allowed, unless they would significantly restrict, distort or prevent competition on the market of the Republic of Serbia, and especially if that restriction, distortion or prevention would be the result of creation or strengthening of a dominant position.
The Commission will determine the important facts, evidence and other elements on which it will base its decision regarding the possible determination of a measure of protection of competition, that is, a measure of deconcentration.
By way of conclusion on initiation of the proceedings, all persons who possess data, documents or other relevant information which can contribute to the establishment of the correct facts in this case are invited to submit them without delay to the Commission for the Protection of Competition at the address 25/IV Savska Street, Belgrade.
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.
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.
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.
The Commission for the Protection of Competition participated in the 21st annual conference “Global Forum on Competition”, which is traditionally organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), at its headquarters in Paris.
Officials from around 110 competition protection authorities and international organizations were invited to this year’s conference, and the topics were: “Goals of competition policy”, “Subsidies, competition and trade”, “Interaction between competition protection bodies and sector regulators” and “Remedies and commitments in cases of abuse of a dominant position”.
In the introductory part of the conference, the participants of the meeting were addressed by high-ranking officials of international organizations, namely the general secretaries of the OECD and UNCTAD, Mathias Cormann and Rebeca Grynspan, the executive vice-president and commissioner for competition of the European Commission, Margrethe Vestager, the chairman of the OECD Committee on Competition, Frédéric Jenny and Director of the OECD Directorate for Financial and Business Affairs, Carmine di Noia.
On the second day, during the panel, representatives of the Commission gave a presentation related to the previously submitted written contribution and the Commission’s relationship with national sector regulators.
The conference represented a good way of connecting the Commission with representatives of competition protection authorities from all over the world, then, actualizing contacts with competition protection authorities from the region during the coronavirus pandemic aftermath and finally, direct representation of the Commission in the international arena.
Within the project “Effective Public Procurement in the Service of Economic Growth”, implemented by the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) with the support of Swedish Agency for International Development (SIDA), a round table was held on the 30 November 2022 named “Protection of Competition in Public Procurement”.
The foreign guest at the round table was Mr. Gianluca Sepe from the Italian competition authority, who presented the practice, challenges and recommendations from this area. The domestic participants included representatives from the Commission for Protection of Competition, Public Procurement Office, Republic Commission for the protection of rights in public procurement procedures and Anti-corruption agency.
The purpose of the round table was emphasizing the importance of competition protection in procedures of public procurement and additional connecting and strengthening of cooperation between the institutions that are competent for this area.
Final conference of the project was organized on 01 December 2022 with attendance of high officials.
The Organization for economic cooperation and development (OECD) together with the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, held a conference where the results of the OECD project entitled “Fair market conditions for competitiveness” were presented.
Member of the Council of the Commission, Čedomir Radojčić, participated in a panel dedicated to the topic of strengthening competition protection in the Republic of Serbia, with special reference to the Commission’s role in increasing the level of competitiveness of the national market and the tools it has at its disposal in terms of raising awareness of the need for and ways to comply with the rules protection of competition.
During the conference, held in the Chamber of Commerce of Serbia, the work of the Commission for the Protection of Competition was positively evaluated by OECD experts in the presentation regarding the state of competition in the Republic of Serbia.
