The Commission’s guidelines for drafting compliance programs, with the accompanying model and compliance checklists, won this year’s Antitrust Writing Awards readers vote award in the section of the best “Soft Law” materials of competition authorities (Soft Laws & Studies – Best ” soft laws” and studies) in the region of Europe. The full name of the award is “Best Soft Law, Europe, Readers Choice – 2024 Antitrust Writing Awards”.
These prestigious awards are organized by the publication Concurrences and George Washington University, and the goal is to promote the study of competition law and contribute to the promotion and advocacy of competition protection (antitrust advocacy) in the spheres of law and economics.
The Commission’s publication is one of the eight awarded “Soft Law” materials of competition authorities, and in addition to the Commission’s guidelines, the works of the European Commission and the competition protection bodies of the United Kingdom, France, Austria, Hungary, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Turkey, were eligible for votes in the category “Europe”.
The selection of the Best “soft laws” and studies aims to contribute to the development of the culture and awareness of competition protection. This category seeks to support the international promotion and advocacy of competition protection (antitrust advocacy) by highlighting the most expedient and relevant materials of competition protection bodies that do not refer to specific subjects and procedures, such as guidelines, market analyses, etc. It aims to single out some of the most interesting administrative practices that could be applied more often and more widely.
The Commission for the Protection of Competition and the National Competition Commission of Paraguay (CONACOM – Comisión Nacional de la Competencia) held a joint online session where representatives of the Commission presented the working method related to the independent detection of cartels without relying on the leniency program,notifications or cooperation with other authorities.
Officials and representatives of the Paraguayan authorities were explained the cartel detection method developed by the Commission and were familiarized with its practice regarding the detection and proof of concerted practices as a type of restrictive agreement.
The collaboration took place during the 22nd annual conference “Global Competition Forum” Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) held in Paris, where CONACOM officials expressed interest in the method presented by the Commission for the Protection of Competition.
A member of the Council of the National Competition Commission of Paraguay, Eduardo Barros, expressed his gratitude to the Commission for the presentation held to CONACOM employees.
The Commission for Protection of Competition’s Guidelines for Drafting Competition Compliance Programs, with the Template Competition Compliance Program accompanying the Guidelines and two Competition Checklists for assessing exposure of undertakings to risks of competition infringements, have been nominated this year for the Antitrust Writing Awards, organized by Concurrences and George Washington University. The aim of the Antitrust Writing Awards is to promote competition scholarship and contribute to competition advocacy in the legal and economic fields.
The publication in English is nominated in the section of the best Soft Laws & Studies of competition authorities in the subcategory “Europe”. The Commission is in the same category with the European Commission and competition authorities of the UK, France, Austria, Hungary, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Turkey.
The “Best Soft Laws & Studies” selection aims to contribute to developing antitrust culture and awareness. It seeks to support international antitrust advocacy by drawing attention to the most meaningful non-enforcement documents published by competition agencies such as guidelines, market studies, etc. It aims at singling out some of the most interesting administration practices that could be usefully applied more generally.
As in previous years, the nominations are evaluated by a jury composed of leading antitrust enforcers, academics, and counsel and at the same time there is an audience vote.
The Commission for the Protection of Competition participated in the 22nd annual conference “Global Forum on Competition”, which is traditionally organized by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), at its headquarters in Paris.
Upon a special invitation of the OECD, within the panel “Alternatives to the Leniency Programmes”, the Commission’s work method was presented, which refers to the proactive independent detection of cartels without relying on the leniency program, reports or cooperation with other authorities. The presentation attracted considerable attention from the representatives of the competition protection authorities present and was accompanied by questions, discussion and positive evaluations.
To this year’s conference, which took place from December 7 to 8, 2023, guests from around 110 competition protection authorities and international organizations were invited, and the topics were: “From globalization to regionalization”, “Alternatives to the leniency programmes”, “Using economic evidence in cartel cases” and “Ex-post evaluation of measures imposed in merger investigation procedures”
The conference represented a good way of connecting the Commission with representatives of competition protection authorities from all over the world and directly presenting the work of the Commission in an international framework.
The Commission for the Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia signed a Memorandum of Cooperation in the field of application of competition law with the Georgian National Competition Agency during the II International Conference on Competition and Consumer Protection held in Tbilisi.
This Memorandum, signed by Commission Council member Čedomir Radojčić and President of the National Competition Agency of Georgia Irakli Lekvinadze, is aimed at improving the cooperation in the field of competition protection as well as further development of bilateral relations.
Also within the panel “Restrictive agreements, effective mechanisms for detection and prevention”, member of the Council of the Commission Čedomir Radojčić held a presentation of the Business Compliance Program Model with regulations on competition protection with Guidelines and lists for compliance control and risk identification which was developed by the Commission.
The heads of state authorities of Georgia, representatives of regulatory bodies, experts from relevant fields and agencies of other countries, representatives of international organizations (UNCTAD, OECD, etc.), media and others participated in the conference as well.
The objective of this meeting, organized by the Georgian National Competition Agency, the National Bank of Georgia, the Georgian National Regulatory Commission for Energy and Water Supply, the National Communications Commission and the State Oversight Service of Georgia, was to exchange experiences and best international practices, improve joint action and establish cooperation between participants.
Representatives of the Commission for the Protection of Competition met with the representatives of the OECD from the OECD Department for Southeast Europe and the OECD Department for Competition, as well as with a representative of the Republic Secretariat for Public Policies.
The meeting was held as part of the continuation of activities on the project “Fair Market Conditions for Competitiveness”, which the OECD has been implementing since 2019.
The objective of the meeting was to organize a joint workshop on the topic of assessing the impact of regulations on competition in the market, intended primarily for civil servants who work on the drafting of regulations at ministries and other organizations that exercise public authority.
Representatives of the Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia participated on the 21st ICN Annual Conference and 21st International Conference on Competition in Berlin, hosted by the German competition authority (Bundeskartellamt).
The Bundeskartellamt is bringing together two of the most renowned international events dealing with competition policy and competition law enforcement, the International Conference on Competition (ICC) and the Annual Conference of the International Competition Network (ICN). In 1982 the International Conference on Competition was launched by the Bundeskartellamt in Berlin, where the Bundeskartellamt was based at the time, and has since then been held every two years. This year the Bundeskartellamt was also hosted the annual conference of the ICN, the International Competition Network founded in 2001, which today counts 140 member agencies from 130 jurisdictions.
The main topics were the issue of relationship between competition law and policy with other areas, primarily consumer protection and access and use of confidential data, regulatory and other measures necessary to establish and strengthen competition on digital platform markets, as well as other current issues from the areas of anti-trust, concentration assessment, competition protection advocacy, etc.
Approximately 450 participants from over 80 countries attended the conferences, highest representatives of competition authorities, judges, university professors, anti-trust lawyers, representatives of German ministries and other governmental bodies, international companies, etc.
The closing online conference has completed the EU Twinning project “Further Development of Protection of Competition in Serbia”, jointly implemented by the Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia and the Italian Competition Authority as Twinning partners.
The purpose of the project was to contribute to the further harmonization of national competition legislation with the EU acquis, its efficient enforcement and raising awareness on competition law and policy among all relevant actors.
Among the most important project results are the drafting of recommendations for further harmonization of national legislation, improvement of capacities of the Commission for Protection of Competition, judiciary, government officials, and market operators and regulators in the more practical application of competition law and raising awareness of the public on competition policy, and the implementation of sustainable competition advocacy programs.
The project “Further Development of Protection of Competition in Serbia” was realized under the Twinning initiative launched by the European Commission to assist candidate countries in their efforts to strengthen their administrative and judicial capacity for the implementation of the EU acquis. The project budget is about one million euros and is implemented from January 2019 to July 2021. The contracting authority is the Ministry of Finance, Department for Contracting and Financing of EU funded programmes (CFCU).
The organizers of this year’s annual international conference hosted by ACE, Association of Competition Economics, have selected the case conducted by the Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia concerning the edible sunflower oil production and sales market as a representative competition case to be presented to participants of this renowned event.
The conference gathering competition economists from around Europe will take place in Bologna (Italy), mid-November this year. The CPC case was selected among dozens of nominated antitrust cases. One of the selection criteria was that the case illustrates certain advances in the use of economics in competition enforcement or to be of particular interest to competition economists.
The Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia sees the news on the selection of this competition case as additional acknowledgment for results achieved in advancing economic expertise during the last couple of years, reflecting on the quality of its decisions.
Since its creation in 2003, ACE’s main activity has been an annual conference bringing together competition economists. This year’s conference is expected to bring together numerous representatives of European competition authorities, reputable consulting companies and academia, working to exchange related experiences in assessing the effects of operational activities of competition authorities.
President of the Commission for Protection of Competition, Dr. Miloje Obradović, received a visit of the Ambassador of the State of Israel to the Republic of Serbia, H.E. Alona Fisher Kamm.
Dr. Obradović introduced Ambassador Fisher Kamm with competences of the Commission for Protection of Competition and presented activities implemented to date, along with plans aimed at advancing and advocating competition policy in Serbia.
President of the Commission also expressed a desire for the Embassy of Israel in Belgrade to convey a substantial interest of the Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia to intensify cooperation with the Israeli competition authority, as one of the most developed and organized in the world.
Israeli Ambassador thanked for the invitation and emphasized that the role of the Embassy of Israel in Belgrade is foremost, to facilitate position of the current and attract new Israeli investments in Serbia. Also, Her Excellency expressed a pleasure concerning instituted initiative of the Commission for Protection of Competition that might result in a more intensive cooperation and exchange of experiences between two authorities, with the objective of advancing economic environment in Serbia.
