The Commission for Protection of Competition has prepared the Draft Regulation on Agreements on the Repair and Maintenance of Motor Vehicles and Agreements on the Distribution of Spare Parts for Motor Vehicles Exempt from the Prohibition, to be submitted to the Government of the Republic of Serbia for consideration and enactment, in accordance with competences stipulated by the Law on Protection of Competition.

The intent of the Commission is that new regulation will regulate conditions pertaining to the exemption of agreements from prohibition in the area of repair and maintenance of motor vehicles and distribution of spare parts for motor vehicles by taking into consideration specificities of this area, which are not regulated by the general competition policy rules.

The Commission calls all undertakings, business associations, law offices, expert public and all other interested parties that from October 2-17, 2017, submit to the Commission their comments and opinions in reference to the text of the Draft regulation via e-mail address komentar@kzk.gov.rs.

Distribution System Operator “EPS Distribucija” LLC Beograd, acting on the Decision of the Commission for Protection of Competition of December 23, 2016, has implemented all orders of the Commission, wherewith has implemented measures pertaining to the removal of competition infringement within deadlines stipulated for related implementation.

In such manner is provided that equal treatment of all undertakings as distribution system users is secured, along with the possibility for creation of effective competition on the electric power supply market.

The Commission uses this opportunity to particularly emphasize on the importance of a number of legal instruments to its disposal, which enable the Commission to implement effective protection of competition and to obligate undertakings to regulate their behaviors in accordance with the foundations of the market economy toward achieving economic progress and wellbeing of the society, and particularly in delivering benefits for consumers.

Commission for Protection of Competition has prepared the Draft regulation on technology transfer agreements exempt from the prohibition, to be submitted to the Government of the Republic of Serbia for consideration and enactment, in accordance with competences stipulated by the Law on Protection of Competition.

The intent of the Commission is that new regulation will regulate conditions pertaining to the exemption of technology transfer agreements from prohibition, by taking into consideration specificities of the sector concerned, and the fact that current regulations do not regulate the exemption of these kind of agreements.

The Commission calls all undertakings, business associations, law offices, expert public and all other interested parties that from September 12-27, 2017, submit to the Commission their comments and opinions in reference to the text of the Draft regulation via e-mail address komentar@kzk.gov.rs.

Commission for Protection of Competition has prepared the Draft regulation on agreements between undertakings operating in the rail, road and inland waterways transport sector exempt from the prohibition, to be submitted to the Government of the Republic of Serbia for consideration and enactment, in accordance with competences stipulated by the Law on Protection of Competition.

The intent of the Commission is that this new regulation will regulate conditions pertaining to the exemption of agreements from prohibition in the rail and road transport and inland waterways transport sectors, by taking into consideration specificities of the transport sector which are not regulated by the general competition policy regulations.

The Commission calls all undertakings, business associations, law offices, expert public and all other interested parties that from September 12-27, 2017, submit to the Commission their comments and opinions in reference to the text of the Draft regulation via e-mail address komentar@kzk.gov.rs.

Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, as the authorized legislator, and the Commission for Protection of Competition have instituted drafting of the new regulation governing competition policy. Following drafting procedure, and in the same manner as when preparing the Regulation on the content and manner of submitting notification on concentration, the Commission will call all interested parties to submit related proposals and suggestions, so that new legal solutions could be even more approximated, not only to the EU acquis, but adjusted to the specificities of markets operating on the territory of the Republic of Serbia. The Commission expects cooperation with the academic and expert public, as well as business community representatives in the widest sense of the word, including law offices and undertakings. In this respect, the Commission expresses its familiarity with the content of statements from the document written in English language “Call to action – Protection of free competition”, prepared by an individual law office and the Association for Protection of Constitutionality and Legitimacy. Although the purpose of this notice is not to debate with the authors, but to announce drafting of the new law, however, considering that occurrence of this document coincides with the initiation of new legislative drafting, and given that mentioned text contains incorrect and blanket statements on the Law on Protection of Competition and work of the Commission, it is assessed that toward proper informing the public, it is necessary to react with regard to particular statements. The above-mentioned document assesses the work of the Commission as arbitrary, without judicial control, with particular acts taken during the proceedings characterized as the breach of basic human rights, while the Law per se is evaluated as unconstitutional, thus the call-to-action relates to its abrogation and need to enact new regulation that would be constituted under the Constitution. Without prejudice to interpret provisions of the Code of Professional Ethics for Attorneys-at-law, the Commission nevertheless reminds that the aforementioned Code, inter alia, determines that the manner in which an attorney at law communicates with the state authorities reflects the legal culture and respect for the legal profession, and that in the context of this relation, attorney-at-law should communicate in a temperate and polite manner. The aforementioned Code also determines that written motions and oral addresses should be clear, concise, appropriate and logical, while any criticism an attorney-at-law addresses to the court, other state authorities and representatives thereof must not be communicated in an inappropriate or offensive manner. Considering the aforementioned aspects, and toward preserving the reputation and standards of professional conduct, the Commission will address the Bar Association of Serbia with the request to assess infringement of the Code. The Commission is not surprised by the fact that authors refer to the abrogation of the Law on Protection of Competition as unconstitutional, as such attempts are not new, however, the manner in which such presentation is given, is perceived as inappropriate in every aspect.

We are also informed on the submission of the related document to undertakings which, if insufficiently familiarized with the Law on Protection of Competition and work of the Commission, could be mislead as to the competencies and authorities of the Commission, in addition to the rights stipulated by the Law.

Finally, regardless of the initiative claiming that future amendments to the Law on Protection of Competition will further consolidate “existing unconstitutional provisions”, which we assess as absolutely unacceptable, and in the light of previous positive experiences, the Commission expects to establish cooperation with all interested parties during the legislative drafting process pertaining to the new law on protection of competition.

Based on submitted information, the Commission for Protection of Competition has instituted proceedings ex officio for investigating concentration created by acquisition of individual control on the part of company „Prointer IT Solutions and Services“ LLC Beograd, over company “Alti” LLC Čačak.

In the course of investigation procedure is established that the concentration is implemented without received prior approval of the Commission, thus violating the Law on Protection of Competition, and consequently resulting in determining measure for protection of competition against company „Prointer IT Solutions and Services“ LLC in the amount of 6.7 million dinars.

When determining the amount of related measure, the Commission has considered that said concentration would not cause adverse consequences and would be approved, if notified pursuant to legal obligation.

Member of the Council of the Commission for Protection of Competition, Marko Obradović, and Dean of the Faculty of Economics in Niš, Prof. dr sc. Jadranka Đurović Todorović, have signed the Memorandum on Cooperation between the Commission for Protection of Competition and the Faculty of Economics in Niš.

Memorandum on Cooperation defines the establishment of expert and educational cooperation between these two institutions in the competition policy area via organization of seminars, guest lecture series of the Commission’s experts, joint thematic workshops at the Institute of the Faculty of Economics in Niš, establishing academic internship programs and joint publishing activities in the competition policy area.

Signed document will enable joint activities to be placed on the promotion of competition policy and raising awareness of its significance within the academic and broader general public, to be achieved in cooperation with the Business Cooperation Center of Niš, in addition to introducing an academic course in the field of competition policy as an elective for Masters level students.

Memorandum on Cooperation with the Faculty of Economics in Niš is the fourth such agreement of the Commission signed with the academic community representatives.

During the last year, the Commission for Protection of Competition has conducted the Sector Inquiry on Competition Issues in Aftermarkets (Serbian version only). These markets encompass, inter alia, provision of guarantees, repair services, turnover and use of spare parts for motor vehicles and best-selling home appliances – refrigerators and washing machines.
The main goal of this inquiry was to establish the structure and relations between undertakings, their market shares and market power, with the objective of detecting potential market vulnerabilities, that is, existence of conditions leading to the infringement of competition.

Since the adoption of this document and introduction of the general public with its findings, the Commission has been intensively involved in additional reviewing of this document, in the context of existence of potential competition infringements effected by undertakings operating in these sectors.

To this effect, the Commission came to certain findings that necessary may not mean that particular acts performed on these markets by a part of undertakings are considered to be prohibited, but that may pose a threat to competitive behavior and present endangerment of equivalence of all undertakings on the said markets.

The Commission formulated derived findings in the following documents – Information of Findings and Positions of the Commission regarding the Motor Vehicles Aftermarkets Inquiry, and Information of Findings and Positions of the Commission regarding the Home Appliances Aftermarkets Inquiry.

In these documents, the Commission has in more details elaborated on particular elements of business operations performed on the part of undertakings operating in the motor vehicles and home appliances aftermarkets, and expressed the concern due to the specific segments of contractual relations between undertakings that may indicate to potential competition infringements.

The Commission forwarded these findings to competent state authorities, business associations, as well as undertakings operating in the motor vehicles and home appliances aftermarkets, in order to forewarn them of the possibility of becoming the subject of the Commission’s proceedings in the case of failing to amend certain segments of agreements arranged with their suppliers or dealers.

On May 29, 2017, the Commission for Protection of Competition has instituted proceedings for investigating competition infringement ex officio against Frozen Food Industry “Frikom” LLC Belgrade, on the grounds of determining the existence of abuse of dominance on the ice cream distribution and sale markets. On the following day, May 30, 2017, authorized officials of the Commission have carried out a dawn raid in the premises of “Frikom” company.

Namely, by implementing legal competences concerning the use of an instrument that is found to be extremely efficient in detecting various forms of competition infringements, authorized officials of the Commission have carried out a dawn raid in “Frikom” LLC, and on the occasion performed an inspection of business premises, i.e. data, documents and belongings in two locations in Belgrade, whereby the party concerned and proprietor of premises and belongings have been informed on the matter only when the dawn raid was taking place.

Dawn raid is an instrument available to the Commission for Protection of Competition, pursuant to Articles 52 through 55 of the Law on Protection of Competition with the objective of detecting and preventing acts or actions of undertakings that as their purpose or effect have or may have a significant restriction, distortion, or prevention of competition.

Considering that the proceedings is only recently instituted, and that dawn raid is just one of the manners in which the Commission can collect necessary evidence, all persons in possession of data, documentation or other relevant information that might contribute to the fact-finding in this proceedings are called upon to submit the said to the Commission for Protection of Competition to the address: 25 Savska St., Belgrade.

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.