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)
Beginning October, a presentation titled Market Analysis of Aftersales Service (Aftermarkets) was held at the Commission for Protection of Competition’s premises. Representatives from the Commission for Protection of Competition, Public Policy Secretariat of the RS, PERFORM Project, in addition to research team members of the Institute for Economic Sciences participated in the meeting. The information on this activity was published on the PERFORM Project website as well.
The Commission for Protection of Competition is one of the PREFORM project beneficiaries. The PERFORM project, implemented by Helvetas Swiss Intercooparation SRB representative office, in cooperation with the Public Policy Secretariat of the Republic of Serbia, is implementing four pilot-projects aimed at straightening of evidence-based policy making.
Apart from that, the basic goal of the review on competition related implications on aftermarkets, including guarantees, customer service, turnover and the use of spare parts for motor vehicles and top selling home appliances, was to determine the structure and relations between main market actors, their market shares and relative power, aimed at detecting possible market deficiencies, i.e. presence of competition infringements conditions. The analysis developed a series of conclusions and recommendations that will be published on the website, following the concluding adoption procedure by the Commission’s Council.
During the meeting, all project partners praised the high quality of established collaboration during all project implementation phases and expressed their satisfaction with project related participation. The Commission’s representatives expressed their pleasure with achieved study’s results that provided answers to basic investigation tasks as defined by the project’s ToR.
The report on performed analysis will be published on the Commission’s webpage, taking into consideration undertakings request for protection of specific data. Apart from the call addressed to undertakings to submit their comments to the Commission, the Report will be forwarded to state institutions, identified as responsible for certain issues in the study (Ministry of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications, and Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure).
On the basis of analysis results, a regulation on the group exemption of vertical agreements in the motor vehicle sector will be drafted, thus transporting the EU Commission Regulation 461/2010 into our legislature. Apart from the said, additional investigation will be placed on observed cases that could limit, prevent or disturb the competition on specific markets. Following investigation of certain cases, it will be decided on the existence of a sufficient basis for initiation of competition infringement processes, or merely on drawing the attention of undertakings to certain rules in the context of competition policy.
PERFORM Program Officer Svetlana Kijevcanin announced a conference that will be held in early December where the operational model of all pilot projects will be presented together with the results of all four research studies.
PERFORM website link for related news published in English:
http://www.perform.network/en/news-and-events/43_research-results-on-market-analyses-of-aftersales-services/
The Commission for Protection of Competition, based on the Commission President’s Resolution, dated August 29, 2016, initiated competition infringement procedure ex officio against company “INTER TURS PLUS” from Aranđelovac.
Based on data, information and documents collected, the Commission reasonably assumed a violation of competition having, or likely to have as their object or effect, significant restriction, distortion or prevention of competition.
During the conduct of procedure, the Commission will investigate whether the named company, as a controller of a single bus station in Topola, by increasing bus station platform cost – bus dispatch services, committed the abuse of a dominant position. Bus platform selling price in the amount that is unfairly high, which leads to the exploitation of service users, can constitute an act of the abuse of a dominant position stipulated under Article 16 of the Law on Protection of Competition.
The Commission for Protection of Competition initiated proceedings against 16 wholesale and retail of sportswear, footwear, equipment and accessories undertakings.
The proceedings were initiated on the grounds of reasonable presumption of existence of competition infringement pursuant to Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition, an activity restricting the competition on retail and wholesale markets of sportswear, footwear, equipment and accessories market in the Republic of Serbia. The undertakings against whom the proceedings were initiated are as follows: „N SPORT“, „PREDUZEĆE ĐAK“, „OFFICE-SHOES“, „PLANETA SPORT“, „CARVEL“, „SPORTMARKET“, „ZVEZDA FOREVER“, „TOTAL SPORT“, „SPORTIKO“, „UNIVERS-CO“, „EUROSTAR“, „TRIM DOO VRBAS“, „K..G…FASSHION“, „KOPELLI“ and „STR FOKUS“ and „KOMISION SPORT ONE“.
On August 18, 2016, the Commission performed a down raid at the business premises of the „N Sport“ company and acquired information, data and contracts which this company has entered into with its customers. The down raid was conducted due to the existence of a reasonable doubt of danger of disposal or altering evidence held by the party in the proceedings.
According to the collected information and documents, the „N Sport“ company, as the seller, has entered into contracts on business cooperation with other undertakings against whom the Commission has initiated proceedings, which contained an obligation for the customers to comply with the minimum retail price set by the „N Sport“ in the resale of their products. This obligation particularly pertained to the brands PUMA, RUSSELL ATHLETIC, SERGIO TACCHINI and others. Also, the contracts contained a prohibition of special sales actions and other forms of favorable sales without prior approval of the seller, i.e. the „N Sport“.
The Commission reasonably assumed that certain provisions of the concluded contracts represent a mutually agreed obligation, by way of which prices and terms of trade are set in an illegal manner, which constitutes a restrictive agreement and infringement of competition pursuant to Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition. Restrictive agreements are agreements between undertakings, the object or effect of which is to considerably restrict, distort or prevent competition on the territory of the Republic of Serbia, and in particular those agreements which directly or indirectly set purchase or sale prices or other terms of trade in the resale of products.
The Commission invites all the parties who may possess data, documents or any other relevant information which may contribute to determining the facts in these proceedings, to submit them at the address of the Commission for Protection of Competition, Savska 25/IV, Belgrade.
During the session held on August 11, 2016, the Commission for Protection of Competition’s Council enacted decision on conditional approval of implementation of concentration created by the change of control of the Sunoko d.o.o Novi Sad company over Star Šećer d.o.o. Senta company, and consequently over TE-TO Senta A.D. sugar factory.
Based on the state of the matter determined during investigation procedure, the Commission concluded that by implementing of concentration, the Sunoko’ dominant position shall be strengthened, foremost in the sugar production and sugar distribution markets in the Republic of Serbia. For those reasons, implementation of the mentioned concentration can be approved only if accompanied by certain conditions prescribed by the decision. The Commission for Protection of Competition believes that by determining behavioral measures referring to Sunoko d.o.o Novi Sad, secures a prevention of potential adverse effects of the concentration in question.
The decision imposed conditions in a form of behavioral measures and mandatory regular reporting towards the Commission with the goal of securing market structure and retaining all production capacities, including the TE TO Senta sugar refinery on the market, transparent monitoring of the level, alterations in sugar prices on the market, improvement of sugar sale policy’s transparency and consumer business relations, as well as full disclosure of information to the Commission on the level and type of investments to be implemented in the TE TO Senta with the aim of increased production effectiveness, in the following manner:
1. Reporting on the processed sugar beets and manufactured sugar, separately for each of the sugar refineries owned by Sunoko.
2. In the case of liquidation, or Sunoko’ decision resulting in permanent closing of some of sugar refineries under their management, Sunoko is obliged to previously publically announce the sale of sugar refinery’s equity or property in no less than three daily newspapers regularly distributed in the whole territory of the Republic of Serbia, and in one foreign newspapers specialized in economy and finances and published in the territory of the EU, or on an Internet portal usually utilized for distribution of business related news.
3. Obligation of reporting on prices, on consequential changes in sugar prices individually for the Serbian market, EU, CEFTA and eventually the third market, on FCO sugar refineries parity, VAT free, with the submission of a rationale on samples and intensity of consequential changes.
4. Obligation to, no later than in six months, submit to the Commission a document with which it defines its domestic costumer sugar sale policy.
5. Reporting on possible alterations of existing contracts between TE-TO Senta A.D. sugar factory and costumers, and a rationale of those.
6. Commitment of submitting annual reports on measures and activities taken with the goal of maintaining business operations of the TE-TO Senta A.D. sugar factory, which may include, but are not limited to the following: repayment or debts, assumption of other financial expenditures, transfer of technical and technological know-how and experiences, transfer of managerial know-how and experiences, measures that influence increase of production effectiveness and reduction of sugar cost prices, as well as other, direct or indirect, financial, technical and technological, managerial, and other measures.
Ordered measures (except under Item 5), shall be implemented until the abolition of customs duties and levies on sugar imports in the Republic of Serbia, and no longer than for period of subsequent five years from the Commission decision’s legal validity date. Measure under Item 5 shall be implemented ending 2017.
Throughout the investigation procedure, the Commission obtained necessary data, information, as well as opinions on the effects of concentration from competitors as the concentration participants, their biggest suppliers and customers, in addition to the state authorities and organizations in charge of data relevant to this proceeding.
During the determination of conditions for approval of concentration, the Commission also kept in mind opinions and views on the effects of concentration that other undertakings have presented in the course of the proceeding, particularly industrial costumers.
The Commission also had in mind financial position of the TE-TO Senta A.D. factory. Regulated conditions, deadlines and manners for monitoring of their execution should eliminate Commission’s concerns related to securing efficient protection of competition, via preserving production capacities, implementation of planned investments that can achieve increased production efficiency, and thus, lower sugar cost prices, alongside transparent sale policy (discount policy) and price policy (intensity and causes of price alternations).