On the occassion of marking a decade of work of the Commission, the guest of the Commission was William Kovacic, Professor at the University of George Washington and Director of the Competition and Market Agency of the United Kingdom (CMA), one of the leading experts on the issues of protection of competition in the world.

Prof. Kovacic held a very informative lecture for employees of the Commission about developments and experiences, but also challenges for competition authorities around the world.

Prof. Kovacic was also a participant at the panel which was organized within the conference ”Competition Day” held on April 12, 2016.

The lecture was attended by the President and members of the Council of the Commission, heads of divisions and employees of Technical Service. After the lecture, expert discussion and exchange of experience on competition law and policy in Serbia and the world was organized.

On the occassion of adoption of the new Regulation on the content and manner of notification of concentration (”Official Gazette of the RS.”, no. 5/16), Commission for Protection of Competition points to the obligation of market participants to notify concentration.

The Law on Protection of Competition provides for the obligation to notify concentration, in a manner and under conditions prescribed by this Law and the Regulation on the content and manner of notification of concentration (”Official Gazette of the RS.”, no. 89/09). It also established the obligation of the party to concentration to suspend the implementation of concentration until the decision of the Commission, as well as Commission’s competence, in case of implementation of concentration contrary to these obligations, to determine a measure for protection of competition to market participant, in the form of pecuniary fine in the amount up to 10% of the total annual turnover.

Failure to comply with obligations relating to notification of concentration within the legally prescribed period (Article 63), and suspension of concentration until the decision of the Commission, constitute a violation of the Law, and in cases where its existence has been established, the Commission shall issue a decision ordering the measure of procedural penalty, or a measure of protection of competition. These obligations apply, pursuant to provision of Article 3 of the Law, to all market participants, including public companies which, provided that the requirements laid down in Article 61 of the Law relating to total annual turnover are fulfilled, must notify the acquisition of control over another market participant.

The importance to comply with obligations relating to notification of concentration and suspension of its implementation until decision of the Commission, should be seen primarily in the context of the possible negative effects that concentrations for which the approval of the Commission was not obtained, may have on competition, whose creation is prevented precisely by ex ante control of concentration in order to protect competition from restriction, distortion or prevention, or the creation or strenghtening of dominant position of the party to concentration in the relevant market.

On January 23, 2016, Government of the Republic of Serbia adopted Regulation on the content and manner of notification of concentration. The Regulation was published in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia no. 5/2016, dated January 25, 2016 and will enter into force on February 2, 2016, when it will begin to be implemented in the work of the Commission. Notifications of concentrations that are submitted as of February 2, have to be in accordance with this Regulation. The new regulation provides for the possibility of notification in summary form, which will facilitate the notification by reducing the necessary documentation to be submitted attached to notification. The conditions for submitting a notification in a summary form are regulated by the same Regulation. The Commission is ready, by applying the institute of pre-notification meeting, to eliminate ambiguities in the implementation of Regulation that the market participants may have.

Commission for Protection of Competition continuous ex officio to pursue investigation of concentration initiated on the basis of notification of the company ”Industry of Milk and Dairy Products Imlek” a.d. from Padinska Skela.

Concentration is notified for the acquisition of 100% of share in the company ”Nis Dairy” d.o.o.by the company ”Imlek”.

After having examined submitted documents, and based on all the facts arising from the content of the notification, Commission has found that by implementation of notified concentration, company ”Imlek” would strenghten its position in the market for purchase of raw cow’s milk, production and sales of milk and dairy products, since companies ”Imlek” and ”Nis Dairy” are direct competitors, and that the company ”Imlek” is the strongest participant in the relevant market.

The Commission shall, therefore, in investigation procedure, additionally evaluate all the statutory criteria in order to determine permissibility of concentration, and not only the structure of relevant markets and the position of parties to concentration on them. Commission shall specifically investigate whether a notified concentration fulfills the conditions of permissibility prescribed in Article 19 of the Law on Protection of Competition, or whether the implementation of concentration significantly restricts, distorts or prevents competition in the market of the Republic of Serbia or a part thereof.

The representative of the Commission for Protection of Competition participated in the meeting in Istanbul, organized by ICN Unilateral Conduct Working Group which deals with unilateral conduct of market participants, and in cooperation with Turkish competition authority, as co-organizer.

The two-day meeting included lectures, panel discussions as well as practical work on hypothetical case on the subject: ”Refusal to deal and assessment of unilateral conduct of market participants.”

The workshop was attended by representatives of competition authorities from countries with different level of development of competition law and practical experience, which certainly did not prove to be a hindrance to free exchange of ideas and experiences while working on a hypothetical case. This once again demonstrated that the presence at such meetings is of great importance, especially for countries that do not have a long tradition of competition protection, which is a case of Serbia.

The gathering was attended by about 100 representatives from more than 40 different countries.

Representative of the Commission for Protection of Competition, Mr. Srdjan Jankovic participated as one of the speakers at the seminar ”How to apply amendments and modifications to the Law on Public Procurements and the Law on Protection of Competition in public procurements procedures”, along with representatives of the Republic Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurements Procedures and law office ”Jankovic, Popovic, Mitic”.

The seminar discussed the implementation of the amendments to the Law on Public Procurements; cooperation between Republic Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurements Procedures and Commission for Protection of Competition in detecting bid rigging in public procurements, as well as the application of competition rules to joint participation in public procurements procedures.

The seminar was an opportunity to promote competition law and improve dialogue between Commission for Protection of Competition and market participants, as well as Republic Commission for the Protection of Rights in Public Procurements Procedures.

The seminar was organised by ”Top-Tier Legal Adriatic” (TLA) a regional network of legal experts, together with the French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce, Italian-Serbian Chamber of Commerce, German-Serbian Business Association, Slovenian Business Club, the trade department of the Embassy of Austria and as a coordinator, law firm ”Jankovic, Popovic, Mitic”.

The seminar was attended by more than 70 participants, which is another indicator of the need for constant training and exchange of experience between independent authorities, market participants amd experts.

Commission for Protection of Competition sent a letter to the Ministry of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure, expressing its position on the particular provisions of the Draft Law on Amendments to the Law on Public Utilities.

Commission stressed the importance of providing equal conditions for all participants in the market of utilities, and in this context drew attention to negative effects of the creation of a legal monopoly.

Commission for Protection of Competition expressed concern that the Ministry opted for solutions that will further limit the potential for competition in the market of public utilities.

Commission notes that only through competition among competitors with quality and price, economic progress and well-being of society, especially the benefit of consumers, can be achieved.

Commission for Protection of Competition has initiated procedure ex officio against companies Philip Morris Operations a.d. Niš, Philip Moriss Services d.o.o., Belgrade, JT International a.d. Senta, British American Tobacco a.d., British American Tobacco South East Europe d.o.o. Belgrade, IMPERIAL TOBACCO SCG d.o.o., Belgrade, TDR d.o.o., Belgrade and MONUS d.o.o. Belgrade (Zemun), due to a reasonable assumption that as market participants in Serbia they consorted their practice, with regard to pricing of their products.

Commission reasonably assumed that these companies concluded a restrictive agreement under Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition, in the form of consorted practice on introduction of change and the amount of change in price, including the time as of which their decision to change the price, becomes legaly bound.

It should be noted that the Commission, under this procedure, carried out dawn raid on November 30, 2015, of companies Philip Moriss Services d.o.o., Belgrade and British American Tobacco East Europe d.o.o., Belgrade.

Commission invites all persons who have data, documents or other relevant information which may contribute to determining the factual situation in this procedure, to submit them at Savska 25, Belgrade.

Commission for Protection of Competition conducted, on November 30, 2015 dawn raids of the premises of the companies Philip Morris Services d.o.o. and British American Tobacco South East Europe d.o.o., due to a reasonable assumption that an infringement of competition was made.

The Commission has also initiated procedures ex officio, against these companies on suspicion that, as market participants, they have consorted their practices regarding pricing of their products.

By conducting dawn raid, authorized officials of the Commission carried out sudden inspection of premises, i.e. data, documents and things of which the party or the holder of premises and things have been notified on the spot, at the time of conducting the inspection.This instrument is extremely effective for detection of cartel agreements and other forms of infringement of competition. During dawn raids, Commission had full cooperation of the parties to procedure.

At present, Commission is not able to provide more information, in the interest of further procedure.

Commission for Protection of Competition, following the completion of procedure for investigation of infringement of competition initiated ex officion on July 25, 2013 against companies ”Amm Immovables” d.o.o., Beograd, ”Beteco”, for production, trade amd services d.o.o. Belgrade (Zemun), ”Sagoja” d.o.o. for production, trade and services Belgrade (Zemun) and ”Advena line” d.o.o. Belgrade, passed a decision establishing the existence of competition infringement pursuant to Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition.

These companies have concluded a restrictive agreement by which they pre-arranged individual participation, and by making direct arrangement on prices and other commercial conditions in public procurement of goods – uniforms, shoes and other equipment for the needs of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Serbia in 2013, they infringed competition.

By the decision issued by Commission for Protection of Competition on November 10, 2015, a measure for protection of competition was imposed to these companies in the form of fine in the following amounts:

- company ”Amm Immovables” d.o.o. Beograd, in the amount of 5.1% of the total annual turnover generated in 2012, i.e. in the amount of 15.633.030,00 dinars
- company ”Beteco” d.o.o. Beograd, in the amount of 5.85% of the total annual turnover generated in 2012, i.e. in the amount of 11.194.970,00 dinars
- company ”Sagoja” d.o.o. Beograd, in the amount of 5.1% of the total annual turnover generated in 2012, i.e. in the amount of 7.003.473,00 dinars

In addition, these companies were imposed a measure prohibiting them from participating in the process of public procurement as bidders, for a period of 18 months, starting from the date of the final decision.

By the resolution of the Commission of April 10, 2014, the procedure relating to ”Advena line” d.o.o. Beograd has been suspened, since it submitted the decision of the Business Registers Agency of February 24, 2014 on its removal from the Registrar of Business Entities.

The complete text of the decision is published on the Internet website of the Commission for Protection of Competition.