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.

The Supreme Court of Cassation, by its judgement of 09.10.2015, dismissed the request for review of judgment of the Administrative Court submitted by ”Imlek a.d. Beograd and a.d. ”Mlekara Subotica”, by which, finaly, the Supreme Court of Cassation also confirmed that the decision of the Commission for Protection of Competition on abuse of dominant position by these dairies in the market of purchase of raw milk intended for further industrial processing in dairies in the teritorry of the Republic of Serbia, was lawful.

For the first time in this case, Commission made its decision on 25.01.2008, however, four years later, after the annulment of several decisions, on 09.08.2012 it issued a decision in revised procedure, which the Administrative Court assessed as lawful by its ruling of 05.01.2015. The Supreme Court of Cassation upheld the legality of this ruling by its judgement, thus also confirming the decision of the Commission.

This judgement is important too from the perspective of transferring the legal frame to the level of individual cases, i.e. to situations of certain behavior of market participants, the conditions and consequences of such actions in a particular market environment, thus confirming the predictability of practice of Commission and courts and the legal certainty of participants in the procedures for protection of competition.

On 10.11.2015, European Commission published its Annual Report on the Serbia progress in the process of European integration, in which it examined the compatibility of regulations and the manner of their implementation to EU acquis.

When it comes to Chapter 8 – competition policy, European Commission assessed that Serbia is ”moderately” prepared to assume the obligations in this field. The greatest progress under this Chapter has been made in the area of competition protection, more specifically, narrowed down to infringement of competition and merger control.

European Commission said that in the field of competition infringements and merger control, the legal framework has been largely harmonised with EU acquis. Commission for Protection of Competition has maintained its level of activities from 2014, making decisions on abuse of dominant position and merger control. Conduct of two dawn raids in July 2015, is a positive development towards a more efficient fight against cartels.

The Report says that in 2015, administrative capacity of the Commission has been significantly strengthened. On the other hand, according to estimates in the Report, the capacity of judiciary to decide on complex cases in the field of competition must be further improved.

Commission for Protection of Competition has initiated an investigation procedure for infringement of competition ex officio, against the company ”Infostan”, Public Utility Company from Belgrade, in order to investigate infringement of competition as in Article 16 of the Law on Protection of Competition.

Abuse of dominant position on the market is prohibited, especially in case of applying dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties, thereby placing them at a disadvantage in relation to competitors.

Commission reasonably assumes that company Infostan posseses business sensative information on the number of customers, who do not have a household insurance, listed through unified billing system. By using its knowledge and position, company Infostan allowed joint stock insurance company ”Generali Insurance Serbia”, an insight into the market, and provided information on potential customers who do not use insurance services, whereby it applied dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other market participants, placing at the disadvantage particular market participants in relation to their competitors, thereby abusing its dominant position.

Commision shall, within investigation procedure, undertake evidentiary actions in order to determine decisive facts, which are important for assessing the existence of infringement of competition.

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

Foreign Investors Council (FIC), at its annual presentation of business climate and recommendations for its improvement – ”White Book 2015”, notes visible progress in the work of Commission for Protection of Competition.

According to Foreign Investors Council, the improvements are obvious regarding the clarification of existing competition rules governing commitments, but also relations between competitors in public procurement procedures. As stated in the ”White Book” particularly noteworthy is the fact that in November 2014, Commission for the first time applied ”commitment decision” introduced by the amendments to the Law on Protection of Competition of 2013.

Extremely positive progress is, in the opinion of Foreign Investors Council, a public invitation which the Commission sent to all relevant stakeholders, to submit comments to the draft Regulation on Notification of Concentration. Commission clearly demonstrated, during a public debate on the draft Regulation, that it is willing and ready to transparently and openly discuss with the business community new laws and supporting sub-legal acts and consequently, to consider and accept comments to its own draft legislations. In addition, although periodically published opinions and decisions of Commission generally improve the existing legal framework and provide a better understanding of competition rules, an additional effort should be made in publishing updated (and comprehensive) quidelines and recommendations of the Commission, said FIC Report.

Foreign Investors Council has been issuing this publication since 2013 and it is promoted in the forth quarter every year at the prestigious event. ”White Book” is a representation of business climate in Serbia by private sector and in transparent way represents a platform for dialogue with the government authorities and a practical set of recommendations. Its aim is to allow the removal of unnecessary barriers to doing business in Serbia, which makes easier the inflow of investments.