- I. GENERAL PROVISIONS
- II. INFRINGEMENTS OF COMPETITION
- III. CONCENTRATION OF UNDERTAKINGS
- IV. COMMISSION FOR PROTECTION OF COMPETITION
- Position of the Commission
- Competencies of the Commission
- Organisation of the Commission
- Election of the bodies of the Commission
- Term of office
- Operation of the Council
- The Staff of the Commission
- Incompatibility of functions and jobs
- Conflict of interest
- Salaries and compensations
- Statute and other acts of the Commission
- Financing of the Commission
- Financial Plan
- V. PROCEDURE BEFORE THE COMMISSION
- 1. General provisions of the Procedure before the Commission
- Party in the procedure
- Applicability of General Administrative Procedure
- Initiation of procedure ex officio
- Initiation of the procedure upon request of the party
- Expeditious procedure
- Decisions passed by the Commission
- Delivery
- Publishing
- Investigation procedure
- Official identification of the Commission
- Access to the file and documents
- Submitting documents for inspection
- Protected information
- Renewal of the procedure
- 2. Specific regulations of procedure regarding the infringement of the competition
- Sector inquiries
- Obligation to provide required information
- Cooperation of state entities and organizations
- Cooperation with the police
- Privileged communication
- Authorizations in inspection
- Unannounced inspection
- Entering the premises
- Temporary repossession of documents and items
- Interim measures
- Administrative measures issued by the Commission
- Suspension of procedure
- Measures for removal of results of competition infringement
- 3. Specific regulations of procedure regarding restrictive agreements
- 4. Specific regulations of procedure regarding concentrations
- 5. Measures for protection of competition and procedural penalty
- 1. General provisions of the Procedure before the Commission
- VI. JUDICIAL REVIEW
- VIII. TRANSITIONAL AND FINAL PROVISIONS
LAW ON PROTECTION OF COMPETITION∗
I. GENERAL PROVISIONS
Subject of the law
Article 1
This law shall regulate protection of competition on the market of the Republic of Serbia, with goal of economic development and welfare of the society, and in particular to the benefit of the consumers, as well as the position, organization and competencies of the Commission for Protection of Competition (hereinafter referred to as the Commission).
Territory of application
Article 2
This law shall be applied on the acts and deeds performed on the territory of the Republic of Serbia, as well as on the acts and deeds performed outside its territory, that affect or could affect the competition on the territory of the Republic of Serbia.
Scope of application
Article 3
This law shall apply to all legal and natural entities that directly or indirectly, permanently, occasionally or ad hoc, perform economic activities in trade of goods and services, regardless of their legal status, ownership affiliation or sitizenship or state of origin (hereinafter referred to as undertakings), including:
1) domestic and foreign companies and entrepreneurs;
2) state institutions, bodies of territorial autonomy and local self-governments;
3) other natural and legal entities and associations (unions, business associations, sports organizations, institutions, cooperative associations, intellectual property holders and other);
4) public enterprises, companies, entrepreneurs and other undertakings, performing the activities of public interest, or those that have been given the fiscal monopoly, through the act of the state authority in charge, except if through the application of this law, either lawfully or factually, they are prevented to perform these activities or tasks assigned by public authority.
∗ Official Gazette of Republic of Serbia, No. 51/2009, published 14. July 2009; unofficial translation
Employment relations
Article 4
This law shall not apply to relations between employers and employees, neither to the relations that are covered by collective agreements between employers and labour unions.
Connected undertakings
Article 5
Connected undertakings, pursuant to this law, are two or more undertakings that are connected in a way that one undertaking is in control of the other, or that two or more of them are controlled by a third undertaking (hereinafter referred to as the connected undertakings).
Control defined in paragraph 1 of this article represents the possibility of decisive influence on managing activities of the undertakings, in particular: Connected undertakings are considered to be a single undertaking pursuant to this law.
Rules pertaining to connected persons and connected companies stipulated by the law on companies shall be applied accordingly to connected undertakings, unless contrary to this law.
Relevant market
Article 6
Pursuant to this law the relevant market is the market determined by the relevant product market and the relevant geographic market.
Relevant product market is a set of goods and/or services that have reasonable interchangeability for purposes for which they are produced, considering their quality, regular use and price.
Relevant geographic market is the geografic area where undertakings have been involved in a demand or supply process and where the conditions of competition are even.
The Government o Serbia (hereinafter referred to as the Government) may prescribe criteria defining relevant market in more detail.
Annual turnover
Article 7
Annual turnover of undertakings pursuant to this law is calculated as total taxable annual turnover, calculated in line with the income tax and corporate tax regulations, prior to tax deduction, taken for the year preceding the year in which the procedure has been initiated.
For undertakings providing financial services, as well as for insurance and reinsurance companies, total turnover referred to in paragraph 1 of this article shall be calculated in the following manner: (1) Interest income and similar incomes;
(2) income from securities (stock income and income from other variable yield securities, income from shares in undertakings, income from stocks in connected undertakings);
(3) income from fees and commissions;
(4) net profit from financial operations;
(5) other operating incomes.
2) For insurance and reinsurance companies, gross amount of charged premiums or premiums held in liability on the basis of insurance or reinsurance contracts concluded by, or on behalf of, insurance companies, after deducing from that amount the taxes charged on the premiums calculable on one contract or on the total amount of premiums.
For various forms of association of undertakings the total turnover referred to in paragraph 1 of this article is calculated as the sum of the total annual turnovers of the association members.
Foreign currency clause
Article 8
Amounts given in euros in this law, as well as in the acts based on this law, are calculated in dinars by the medium exchange rate of the National Bank of Serbia on the day of calculation of annual turnover, or the day of payment of the ammount of issued measure.
II. INFRINGEMENTS OF COMPETITION
Article 9
Infringements of competition are the acts or deeds of undertakings with objective or the consequence by which the competition is considerably limited, violated or prevented.
1. Restrictive agreements
Definition of restrictive agreement
Article 10
Restrictive agreements are those made by undertakings with objective or the consequence to considerably limit, violate or prevente the competition on the territory of the Republic of Serbia.
Restrictive agreements could be contracts, certain items in contracts, specified or implicit, concerted practices, as well as the decisions of associations of undertakings, where:
1) the purchase or sale prices or other conditions of trading are determined directly or indirectly;
2) the production, market, technical development or investments are limited and controlled;
3) unequal conditions of operations are applied in same activities for different undertakings, through which the undertakings are put into an unfavourable position in relation to their competition;
4) the contract or agreement is conditioned with acceptance of additional obligations. that by their nature and trading habits and practice are not connected with the subject of the agreement;
5) the markets or procurement sources are divided.
Restrictive agreements are prohibited and void, except if excluded from prohibition pursuant to this law.
Exemptions
Article 11
Restrictive agreements could be allowed if they contribute to improvement of the production and trade, or facilitate a technical or economic progress, providing the consumers with a fair share of benefits, under condition they do not impose limitations upon undertakings that are not necessary for achieving the goal of the agreement, or they do not facilitate removing the competition on a relevant market or in its significant part.
Individual exemptions
Article 12
Upon request of participants in the restrictive agreement, the Commission may decide on exemption of certain individual restrictive agreement from the prohibition (hereinafter referred to as the individual exemption).
The party that submitted the request for individual exemption bears the burden of proof for the fulfilment of the conditions contained in the Article 11 of this law.
The Government prescribes the contents of the request from the paragraph 1 of this article in more details.
Definition of infringement of competition