SCF Held Its 5Th and 6Th Meeting

November 2015 Issue 1 Albania th th UNCTAD Peer Review SCF held its 5 and 6 meeting page 3 Bosnia and Herzegovina Electronic Communications page 20 Bulgaria Abuse of dominant The 5th meeting of the Sofia Competition Forum took place on 13 – 14 position by Sofia’s November 2014 in Sofia. The main topics were “Inspections on spot” water supplier and “Procedural fairness in inspections on spot”. page 12 Page 24 Croatia Agrokor/Mercator merger page 14 Kosovo Amendments in Competition Law page 2 Macedonia Cartel decision on The 6th SCF meeting was held on 29 May 2015 in Sofia with main electricity trading topics “Procedural fairness in competition cases” and “Interrelation page 6 between public and private enforcement of competition law”. Page 27 Montenegro Special report: Competition Success stories Daily newspapers authorities at a cartel glance: page 5 Inspections on spot Croatia: Serbia Insurance First dawn raids Albania page 34 page 7 main conclusions page 30 UNCTAD Bulgaria: New global strategy Bosnia and Wholesale trade page 22 Herzegovina of medicines page 46 page 32 page 35 November 2015 Issue 1 Legislation 2 News Prohibited agreements 5 Abuse of dominant position 12 Mergers 14 Advocacy 16 Institutional 20 International cooperation 22 5th SCF meeting 24 SCF meetings 6th SCF meeting 27 Albania 30 Competition authorities at a Bosnia and Herzegovina 32 glance Croatia: Positive effects of insurance sector 34 Success stories probe Bulgaria: Advocacy opinion removes 35 restriction of competition in wholesale trade of medicines Expert’s Competition Policy and SDGs 36 TV rights in football 38 comments Standard-essential patents 40 Acquisition of minority shareholdings 42 OECD Competition Assessment Toolkit 44 Volume 3 Special report Inspections on spot 46 Copyright © 2015 Commission on Protection of Competition (Bulgaria) No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced and published without the prior written permission of the Commission on Protection of Competition (Bulgaria) Kosovo Amendments in Kosovo Competition Law Law No.04/L-226 on amending and supplementing the Law 03/L-229 on Protection of Competition was passed in February 2014 and came into force in March 2014. With the enactment of the new amendment of the Competition Law, Kosovo further confirms its commitment towards European Union integration and the further improvement of its regulations in the field of competition with the primary aim of further harmonizing the country’s legislation with the EU acquis and practice. The amendment represents a step forward towards further compliance with the EU requirements but it also helped to overcome the existing deficiencies that had been previously identified in the national legal system that weakened the regulatory role and the preventive effects by the Authority. At the same time, in accordance with the wording of the Stabilization and Association Agreement (Kosovo will sign SAA within 2015), the Authority in future may in certain cases directly apply the competition rules of the EU where the matter at hand directly Assembly of Kosovo affects trade between an EU member Credit: Assembly of Kosovo state and Kosovo. The Kosovo Competition Authority is motivated to focus on more sophisticated aspects of competition enforcement and with regard to this it will attempt to avail the additional enforcement tools on the basis of improved legislation. The amendment of the Law started with the block exemptions for horizontal and vertical agreements, and block exemptions for particular sectors (transportation, motor vehicles, insurance) and matters (technology transfer) – Article 7A. The percentage of dominant position is changed from 40% to 25% (Article 10, par. 2). Two or more independent enterprises may be in a dominant position if, in relation to their competitors they operate jointly on the relevant market and if their total market share is higher than 40% (collective dominance position – Article 10, par. 3). A merger must be pre-notified if the combined turnover of all the business involved in the merger is more than 20 million euro (previously it was 100 million euro) and if at least one of the participants is located in Kosovo and the turnover of at least two participants in the merger within Kosovo domestic market exceeds 3 million euro, and the period two or more agreements between the same enterprises to be considered as a single concentration is amended from 20 years to 2 years (Article 15, par. 1.1, par. 5). As regards certifications for allowing Concentrations and decision for Assessment of Concentration the deadline “within sixty (60) days” is replaced with the deadline “within ninety (90) days” (Article 20, par. 8). The President, the Vice President and the members of the Kosovo Competition Commission shall be proposed by the Government and nominated by the National Assembly; as well the Assembly by the majority of votes may dismiss the President, the Vice President or a member of Commission (Article 25-27). A new Article 57A envisages fine in the amount of 1000 to 3000 Euro for a person in charge of the enterprise as well as a person in charge of a state body, if he/she is involved in the violations provided in Article 56 and 57 of the Basic Law. 2 Legislation Albania UNCTAD Peer Review on Albanian Competition Law and Policy presented In the last months, Albanian Competition Authority has experienced an “exercise” as unknown and interesting at the same time. Our institution has been visited by an expert, with the mission to write a report on the Albanian competition law and policy, a peer review report, based on a decade of experience on competition issues, law and practice. On March 2014, the Albanian Competition Authority celebrated its 10th anniversary of its creation and functioning as an independent and public institution in Albania. It was the time, 10 years of experience, challenging and hard work to be evaluated and to seek something new. During the 7th United Nation Conference of UNCTAD held in Geneva on 6-10 July 2015 a special session was held to assess (Peer Review) the Competition Policy and Competition Law in Albania, which was voluntarily required from the Albanian Competition Authority. The group of known experts engaged from UNCTAD conducted the fact-gathering interview with all the representatives of the main institutions, which have an important role in the implementation of the competition policy in Albania. The prepared report was presented and the chair of the session assessed the implementation of the competition law and policy in Albania, the investigation cases and the independence in the decision making process of the Competition Commission, the approximation process, the competition advocacy, competition culture etc. In her speech, the Chair of the Albanian Competition Authority, Mrs. Lindita Milo (Lati) emphasized that despite the fact that the Albanian Competition Authority has a short history, almost 11 years of independent institution, it has played an important role in the protection of free and effective competition in the market and also in promoting the competition culture in Albania, cooperating closely with the regulatory bodies, public institutions and the European Commission. In the conclusions of the report it was Credit: Albanian competition authority emphasized that the actual legal framework enables the implementation of an effective competition policy in all sectors of the economy and that the Albanian Competition Authority has ensured continuous progress in the promotion and increase of the competition culture through the business community and the consumers by also giving the necessary recommendations for the policy makers on the legal acts that may have impact on competition in the market. The report evaluates that the involvement of the Competition Authority in the regulatory reform and the implementation of the competition advocacy through the recommendations for the regulatory entities, definitely has had effects in the well-functioning of the regulatory markets. According the UNCTAD experts, fighting cartels besides the professional work of the Competition Authority require a leniency program and more cooperation with other public institutions, especially for the prohibited agreements in public procurements (bid ridding). The report concludes with some recommendations among which: . full approximation of the national competition policy with the EU standards; . approximation of the legal framework for the concentration notification; . public awareness for the anti-cartel policy; . attractive leniency policy; . fighting cartels in public procurements in close cooperation with the institutions in charge for public procurements and anti-corruption; . increase the competition culture to the economic operators; . rules in commitment decisions; 3 . increase the public awareness for the requirement of the business for the implementation of the competition law; . increase the capacities on inspections; . create an efficient system for the execution of fines of the Competition Authority (recommendation for the government); . continue the technical assistance project; . training of judges. The cooperation between UNCTAD and the Albanian Competition Authority will continue with the initiation of a technical assistance project that starts in autumn 2015, with the intention to implement the recommendations, the professional increase of the authority staff and to increase the business awareness and other public institutions on the role and importance of the competition law

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