The Commission for Protection of Competition believes that legal requirements for the opening of antitrust proceedings have not been met, nor that the case merits further investigation by the Commission based on an antitrust initiative submitted by Car Go Technologies d.o.o. Beograd against the Taxi Association of Serbia “Satus”, Trade Association of Taxi Entrepreneurs of Belgrade, and the Contractual Taxi Chamber of Commerce of Serbia.

The Commission has notified the party on the matter in the Notice on the outcome of the initiative (attached below).

President of the Commission for Protection of Competition Dr Miloje Obradović and CPC Council member Čedomir Radojčić have met today with Professor Alberto Heimler, one of the world’s leading competition and antitrust experts. Professor Heimler currently holds the position of Chairman of the Working Party on Competition and Regulation and Vice-Chairman of the Competition Committee of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The topics of discussion related to the exchange of experiences in the field of regulation and competition enforcement interplay, as well as improvement of the Commission’s practice in assessing provisions about competition in regulations passed in the Republic of Serbia. The latter represents one of the priorities in activities pursued by the Commission for Protection of Competition since only a pro-competitive legislative framework can bring better guarantees for a level playing field in the Serbian market.

The Commission’s guest presented the scope of his activities to the President and CPC Council member, in particular, the work within the Steering Group of the International Competition Network (ICN) and his activities as Co-Chair of the Working Group on the Operational Framework.

Professor Heimler, author of several important papers on antimonopoly and regulatory issues published in the top international academic journals, will hold a series of workshops in the Commission under the Twinning program, followed by expert-level discussions and exchange of experiences on competition policy and law in Serbia and globally.

President of the Commission for Protection of Competition Dr Miloje Obradović took part, together with his colleague Marija Antić, in the 18th Session of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Competition Law and Policy of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development – UNCTAD, held in Geneva.

During the IGE session, the document titled “Guiding Policies and Procedures under the UN Set on Competition” was adopted, drafted to reflect an initiative presented by the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation – FAS, in cooperation with competition authorities of Japan, USA, Hungary, Germany, Croatia, Italy, and Austria. The Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia also took an active role in the previous period, working together with colleagues from other competition authorities in preparing the final version of this document, which should contribute to the increased efficiency of competition authorities in finding the best common solutions in curbing anticompetitive behaviors.

During the session, Dr Obradović had a series of bilateral discussions with the heads of various global competition authorities, aimed at exchanging experiences towards the establishment of a mechanism for more qualitative work in securing a level playing field for all undertakings. The joint position reaffirmed the view that one of the main challenges in harmonizing competition policy and law relates to the increasingly more digitally mediated economy, as well as that the modern fight against anticompetitive conduct of undertakings is increasingly less confined within national boundaries, thus making the reinforced international cooperation in this area imperative and essential.

The heads and senior officials from more than 50 competition authorities from around the world have participated in the 18th Session of the Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Competition Law and Policy, in addition to representatives of international institutions and academia, international organizations, etc.

Dr Miloje Obradović, President of the Commission for Protection of Competition, and Bojana Tošić, Acting Director of the Public Policy Secretariat of the Republic of Serbia, have signed the Memorandum of Understanding between the two institutions.

The Memorandum aims to provide a framework for more intensified cooperation between the Commission and the Public Policy Secretariat in regulatory impact assessments on market competition during the process of adoption of regulations by the Government, in order to enable timely identification of potential adverse effects of draft regulations on competition.

The improvement of the quality and impact of regulations is thus ensured, made in order to achieve as qualitative as possible regulatory environment, which directly affects the improvement of the business climate in the Republic of Serbia.

The Memorandum is signed in the light of the enhanced implementation of the Serbia Investment Climate Project, implemented by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, in cooperation with the Government of the Republic of Serbia, and endorsed by the British Embassy in Belgrade and the UK Good Governance Fund, whose representatives also attended the signing ceremony.

The Serbia Investment Climate Project aims at enhancing the business environment by reducing the administrative burden on the industry – by streamlining 1,750 administrative procedures for obtaining licenses, permits and approvals, and digitizing 100 procedures, in addition to eliminating practices that adversely affect the development of competition.

The intensification of cooperation between the Commission for Protection of Competition of the Republic of Serbia and the Korean Fair Trade Commission – KFTC, created space for the additional exchange of knowledge implemented under the study trip component. In that way, representatives of the CPC Administrative and Professional Service, Nina Vasić and Marija Petrović, as designated CPC officials, have participated in a two-week KFTC internship program held in South Korea, in June this year.

The objective of the internship program was learning about the functioning and mandate of this state institution of the Republic of Korea, perceived as one of the most efficient in the world, in addition to sharing experiences with representatives of other countries who were also KFTC guests, in order to improve the implementation of competition law and policy and its advocacy.

This year’s selection of the key internship topics made by Korean colleagues related to the competition law analysis with a particular focus placed on tools for the detection of restrictive practices, which also served as a good opportunity for the Commission to present its enforcement record and to make South Korean colleagues familiar with the operating methods in the competition policy domain in the Republic of Serbia.
During the internship, representatives of the CPC Administrative and Professional Service also had an opportunity to meet with KFTC Chairman, Sang-Jo Kim.