Commission for Protection of Competition enacted a decision finding that companies „Bora Kečić – Special transports LLC Belgrade” and „Large transport LLC Belgrade” have agreed on individual participation in the public procurement procedure tendered by the PE “Electro network of Serbia”. By concluding the restrictive agreement they have significantly restricted and distorted competition, and in that sense, the Commission enacted a pecuniary measure to the above-mentioned companies in the amount of RSD 9,792,225.00 and RSD 1,039,300.00 to „Bora Kečić – Special transports LLC Belgrade” and „Large transport LLC Belgrade”, respectively. The said companies are obliged to effect the payment of the aforementioned amounts into the budget of the Republic of Serbia within the deadline of three months.

In the proceeding conducted ex officio, the Commission determined that these companies have agreed on tender pricing, in addition to behavior taken during the conduct of public procurement in relation to offers provided by other bidders. In that sense, the Commission determined the occurrence of competition infringement pursuant to Article 10(2/1) of the Law on Protection of Competition. The objective of “rigged bid” was to eliminate the risk of potentially more favorable bid, to secure that companies „Bora Kečić“ and „Large Transport” in the respective public procurement be elected as the most advantageous bidders, and to acquire a gain higher than the one achieved under the conditions of a free and fair competition

Pursuant to the Decision of the Council and Article 47 of the Law on Protection of Competition, the Commission for Protection of Competition conducted the insurance market competition inquiry in the Republic of Serbia for the period 2012-2015.

The main objective of this inquiry is to determine the market structure and relations between main competing parties, their market shares and relevant power. Additionally, the objective of this inquiry is detecting possible market weaknesses that might create conditions causing competition infringement.

Working group comprising representatives of the Commission, National Bank of Serbia, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications will be established in the coming period, formulating a Draft regulation on conditions for group exemption of agreements in the insurance sector, whereby the European regulatory rules and specifics of the insurance sector in Serbia shall be taken into consideration, which are presented in the Report via conclusions and recommendations of the conducted insurance market sector inquiry.


The Commission takes this opportunity to express appreciation to the National Bank of Serbia and all undertakings for submitting requested data for the purpose of this sector inquiry.
The full sector inquiry report, including conclusions and adopted recommendations is published honoring the requests of business entities for protecting data considered as a trade secret.

All undertakings and other expert public are hereby called upon to submit their comments in reference to the Report, no later than February 28, 2017, email: office.kzk@kzk.gov.rs, with the remark: Comment to the insurance market sector inquiry.

On 23 December the Council of the Commission for Protection of Competition adopted a decision finding that the national electricity distribution system operator EPS Distribution LLC Belgrade abused its dominant position as the sole operator on the market for electricity distribution in Serbia. A pecuniary measure for protection of competition in the amount of approximately RSD 330 million (equal to approximately EUR 2.67 million) was imposed on this undertaking, to be paid into the budget of the Republic of Serbia. This is in addition to behavioral measures aimed at providing equal business conditions on the relevant market.

During the course of the proceedings, the Commission determined that the aforesaid undertaking abused its dominant position by placing certain commercial electricity suppliers and, in particular, its sister company EPS Supply, in a more favorable position vis-à-vis their competitors. Such behaviour was, among other things, a consequence of the non-transparent business policy of EPS Distribution.

While contracting access to the electricity distribution system, EPS Distribution imposed a commitment to deposit security instruments on all commercial suppliers except its sister-company, EPS Supply. At the same time, EPS Distribution discriminated between different suppliers in terms of the amount of the deposited security instruments, by setting the amount for some suppliers based on the monthly value of services provided, while for others the amount was based on a trimonthly value. In addition, almost all commercial suppliers of electricity were obliged to deposit their security instruments in just one commercial bank, chosen by EPS Distribution. During a brief period, EPS Supply also enjoyed a much longer grace period for settling its liabilities towards EPS Distribution, compared to all other commercial suppliers.

The abovementioned conduct resulted in increased costs for competing commercial electricity suppliers.

In setting the level of the pecuniary measure for protection of competition, the Commission took into account the cooperation and overall conduct of EPS Distribution during the proceedings. This included, in particular, the amendment of the disputed acts and a demonstration of intent to fully eliminate the harmful effects of the prohibited market behavior.

The Commission for Protection of Competition expresses its concern due to the City of Subotica Assembly failure to fully act on the Commission opinion relating disputed provisions of the decision arranging utility service of burial and cemetery management in Subotica.

The Commission’s position, presented in the opinion, is that competition infringement and awarding monopoly rights to the municipal public utility company to the detriment of the service users must not occur. The Commission does not believe that granting monopoly rights based on the interpretation of legal terms “burial” and “other acts” is admissible, as considered by the City of Subotica Assembly.

The Commission has sent opinions to the City of Novi Sad Assembly and City of Pančevo Assembly regarding similar issue, whereas the Commission’s position has been acknowledged and fully implemented.

The Commission points that they continue to believe that the City of Subotica Assembly interpretation is too wide, which as its consequence has a restriction of competition and creation of monopoly in conducting burial and cemetery management utility service, when such behavior is neither necessary nor preferable. In that sense, it is expected that disputed provisions of the decision arranging utility service of burial and cemetery management by the City of Subotica Assembly shall be immediately amended pursuant to the opinion provided by the Commission.

On that account, the Commission also sent an opinion to the line ministry pointing to the need to precisely define terms arranging the area of burial and cemetery management in the future regulations so that monopolization of those activities based on different interpretations of legal provisions would be avoided.

The Commission takes this opportunity to emphasize the significance of treatment of the City of Subotica Assembly, considering that by adopting amendments to the disputed decision it would achieve a positive influence on competition. Amendments to the disputed provisions would enable conducting certain funeral services by all interested parties, that is, not just the public utility company but also other companies, entrepreneurs and other business entities, to the benefit of all service users.

President of the Commission, Miloje Obradović, PhD, spoke at the ordinary meeting of the Subcommittee on Internal Market and Competition held in Brussels.

Dr Obradović introduced the European Commission representatives on all activities related to the implementation of the Law on Protection of Competition, as well as on the degree of harmonization of competition related regulations with the EU acquis, which is in accordance with the commitments from Article 73 of the Stabilization and Association Agreement.

In presenting the Commission’s operative results, President Obradović emphasized that the commitment related to harmonization of the Law on Protection of Competition against the new Law on General Administrative Procedure shall represent a great challenge, but that for competition policy implementation is of a great significance that proceedings conducted before the Commission be recognized and defined as a separate administrative procedure, adjusted to the needs of the Law on Protection of Competition.

In its addressing, the Commission President pointed that the institution he heads, and in line with the possibilities and competences, shall endeavor to contribute in creating projects that would bring the subject of competition legislation closer to the judges, aimed at enabling advanced training for working on the cases from this area, which would also have an impact on achieving more efficient implementation of the Law on Protection of Competition.


In its addressing, President Obradović particularly mentioned: “The focus of sector inquiries shall be directed towards markets that in previous period already provoked the interest of the Commission as the case proceedings, or that based on the information are pointing to the fact that the current competition conditions may cause a concern of the Commission. Plausible sectors we shall investigate in the period to come, might encompass the gas, retail and pharmaceutical products markets.”

It has also been highlighted that the Commission’s intent, within its activities, is to promote the Leniency program even more intensely, and to introduce undertakings to the related advantages.

“The Commission shall also continue to work more intensely on raising awareness of the necessity to protect competition in Serbia, as well as on the implementation of practice related to including all interested parties in the regulations drafting procedure, aimed at securing transparency in the Commission’s operations”, said Dr Miloje Obradović, Commission President, in closing to its speech.


During the Subcommittee meeting that is regularly held as part of Serbia’s EU accession process, is presented that our country follows the dynamics of competition development in the EU and strives as much as possible to harmonize its standards against the EU standards. This is also confirmed by the EC review given in recently published the Progress Report for 2016, in which is emphasized that Serbia’s legal framework is mostly aligned with the EU acquis.

On November 28, 2016, the Foreign Investors Council in Serbia presented this year’s edition of the “White Book”, a traditional overview of the business climate in Serbia, as well as recommendations for its improvement.


This document states a significant improvement achieved in operations of the Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia.

As per evaluation of the Foreign Investors Council, “the progress in the field of protection of competition was propelled by continuous regulatory improvements, strengthening of administrative capacity, and strong advocacy activity by the Commission for Protection of Competition. The key positive developments include the following activities performed by the Commission: successful implementation of the binding procedure; enacting the new Regulation on notification of concentration – merger control (in accordance with the EU legislation); readiness to organize pre-notification meetings in order to eliminate any ambiguities; more frequent conduct of down raids; stronger advocacy activities related to the development of competition policy by providing more information on its work, publishing opinions and decisions on the website and other promotional activities.”

The recommendation provided to the Commission is to provide a monthly overview of its activities and not only within its Annual Reports, because it would definitely contribute to increasing transparency in the work of the Commission.

The “White Book” is an overview of the business climate in Serbia provided from the angle of foreign investors, and at the same time and in transparent manner serve as a platform for communication with the authorities, and in this sense also contain certain recommendations for improvement of the state authorities operations.

On November 14, 2016, the President of the Commission for Protection of Competition enacted the Conclusion on continuation of proceeding ex officio, instituted upon the Notification of concentration submitted by the „Serbia Broadband – Srpske kablovske mreže” Ltd company, created by acquiring the control over the „Interaktivne kablovske objedinjene mreže – I.KOM” Ltd company. The proceeding is continued ex officio for investigation of the notified concentration’s fulfillment of conditions of permissibility from Article 19 of the Law, i.e. determining whether the implementation of such concentration would significantly restrict, distort or prevent competition in the market of the Republic of Serbia or its part, and in particular if such restriction, distortion, or prevention would be the result of creating or strengthening of a dominant position.

During the investigation proceeding, the Commission shall conduct all necessary actions and determine all facts and present evidence necessary for defining the relevant market(s), structure of the relevant market(s), degree of concentration of the relevant market(s), identification of actual and potential competing parties, concentration participants’ market position, suppliers and users’ possibility to choose, legal and other obstacles for entering the relevant markets, competitiveness level of the concentration parties, users’ interests, etc.

In accordance with the Law, the Commission is obligated to complete the proceedings within the period of four months from the date of instituting proceeding ex officio.
All persons in possession of data, documentation or other relevant information that could contribute to the accurate fact-finding in this proceeding are called upon to immediately submit the said to the Commission for Protection of Competition, 25/IV, Savska Street, Belgrade.

Based on the Decision of the Council of the Commission for Protection of Competition, an inquiry on competition related conditions on aftermarkets has been conducted. The inquiry encompassed aftersales services, guarantees, turnover and use of spare parts for motor vehicles and top selling home appliances – refrigerators and washing machines.

Apart from comprehensive conditions inquiry, specific conclusions are established in addition to the list of recommendations aimed at improving legitimate and fair market operations of all undertakings, as well as facilitating consumers and their organizations in perceiving products running costs.
The added intent of this inquiry, and in particular of its conclusions and recommendations, is to point the competent state institutions to the conditions on inquired markets, whilst to facilitate the proactive operating of the Commission aimed at deterring undertakings from competition infringement related acting.


The results of conducted researches and associated established conclusions, enabled adopting a number of positions that might serve the Commission for Protection of Competition and other competent authorities of the Republic of Serbia, as well as consumer associations, in planning, adopting and implementing measures and actions from their field of competence.

One of provided recommendations is to initiate a research on motor vehicle related prices and average running and servicing costs, as well as to publish and promote them in order to facilitate motor vehicle buyers’ consideration of total costs taken when purchasing motor vehicles and received product related value-to-price. The estimate of the research team is that such inquiry would contribute to the more realistic buyers’ comprehension of the scope of costs they endure when buying and servicing and repairing motor vehicles, which would contribute the intensifying competition on both basic products market and aftermarkets.


The results of aforesaid inquiry will be used in the course of preparing the Draft Regulation on conditions for group exemption of agreements in the motor vehicle sector, transporting the EU Commission Regulation no. 461/2010 into our legislative system.
The project is conducted in cooperation with the Public Policy Secretariat of the Republic of Serbia with financial and technical support from the PERFORM Project of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. As per Project’s ToR prepared by the Commission as contracting authority of the inquiry, the research was conducted by the Institute of Economic Sciences, as the Project research partner.

All undertakings and other expert community are hereby invited to submit their comments as per the Report, no later than December 31, 2016, to email address: office.kzk@kzk.gov.rs, referencing: Comment on the aftermarkets sector inquiry.

The Anti-Corruption Agency, Commission for Protection of Competition and Republic Commission for Protection of Rights in Public Procurement Procedures have signed the Agreement on cooperation. The Agreement is signed by Tatjana Babić, the Agency Director, Miloje Obradović, PhD, the Commission President, and Hana Hukić, the Republic Commission President.


The Agreement is signed on the sidelines of a workshop on public procurements in the light of issues regarding the fight against corruption and protection of competition, held from 8-9, November in Aranđelovac, organized by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

This represents the expression of readiness for cooperation aimed at the protection of public interest, reduction of corruption-related risks and strengthening of institutional integrities.
The workshop analyzed issues related to the protection of rights in public procurement procedures, determination of conflict of interests with reference to the conflict of interests in public procurements, public procurements and competition policy, and setting of a joint cooperation areas in the context of the Public Procurement Law, Law on the Anti-Corruption Agency and Law on Protection of Competition. (Photo:OSCE/Milan Obradović)