Aiming to cover the Western Balkans in entirety, starting with this issue of the newsletter, we will also be bringing you the latest competition developments from Albania. In addition, we will occasionally bring you news from Croatia and Slovenia, two countries from the region that have made it in their quest to join the EU family.
With the same aim of covering the entire non-EU part of the Balkans, we have also added a guide to merger control in Albania to our no-nonsense merger control guides. Finally, we have also revamped our merger control app, which now also allows you to check if your transaction exceeds the Albanian merger filing thresholds.
Serbia
Antitrust
Vaillant in RPM probe
The Serbian NCA has started an antitrust investigation against a local Vaillant company. The NCA suspects that Vaillant had been fixing its resale prices in Serbia, since all its authorized distributors had identical prices in the relevant period. At the start of the investigation, the NCA carried out a dawn raid at the investigated company's premises.
Merger control
NCA imposes another modest fine for gun jumping
The Serbian NCA has issued another modest gun-jumping fine. This time, the recipient of the fine is a Serbian company MAT-REAL ESTATE d.o.o., related to the acquisition of a local company.
Sectoral inquiry into the market for food delivery apps concluded
The Serbian NCA has published its findings into the market for food delivery apps. The inquiry covered the period 2020-2021 and looked into the relationships between the main stakeholders in the market. As a reminder, the NCA last year started an antitrust investigation against Glovo, a leading food delivery app in Serbia, for alleged abuse of dominance.
Montenegro
Merger control
Five new merger notifications. In January and February, the Montenegrin NCA announced the receipt of five new merger notifications
- Mercator-CG doo (Montenegro) - Franca Marketi doo (Montenegro)
- Orbico doo (Croatia) - Deba Cedars Investments SRL (Romania)
- Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG (Germany) - RaceDepartment BV (Netherlands)
- Softline Holding PLC (Cyprus) - New Frontier Holding GmbH (Austria)
- Nelt Co. doo (Serbia) - SelfNest doo (Serbia)
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Competition law in Bosnia and Herzegovina: What happened in 2022?
The Bosnian NCA has published its annual report for 2022. Thanks to that document, we now have more insight into the enforcement of Bosnian competition law in the previous year, as well as what will some of the NCA’s priorities be in this year.
North Macedonia
Merger control
14 new merger notifications
In January and February, the North Macedonian NCA announced the receipt of 14 new merger notifications:
- Wienerberger AG (Austria) - Terreal Holding SAS (France)
- Telekomunikacije RS ad (Bosnia and Herzegovina) - Trion Tel doo (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
- WTE Wassertechnik GmbH (Germany) - sludge2energy GmbH (Germany)
- Mosburger GmbH (Austria) - Scatolificio La Veggia S.p.A. (Italy)
- Allwyn AG (Switzerland) - Camelot Global Lottery Solutions Ltd. (UK)
- Volkswagen AG (Germany) - Nira Dynamics AB (Sweden)
- Nestle Bulgaria ad (Bulgaria) - ISO-PLUS BG eood (Bulgaria)
- Elkem ASA (Norway) - VUM, a.s. (Slovakia)
- ALFI PE doo (Slovenia) - Generali Investments GP1 doo (Slovenia), Generali Investments GP2 doo (Slovenia)
- Dolit Investments SA (Greece) - Pavlidis SA Marble-Granite (Greece)
- Salus doo (Slovenia) - Meditrade doo (Slovenia)
- Aricoma a.s. (Czechia) - Sabris s.r.o. (Slovakia)
- Aricoma Group a.s. (Czechia) - Consulting 4U, s.r.o. (Czechia)
- DuluxGroup Limited (Australia) - N.p.t. srl (Italy)
Albania
Antitrust
Dairy market in the spotlight
Following media reports that certain dairy companies in Albania had notified retailers in advance of an upcoming price increase, the Albanian NCA established a working group for monitoring that market. In particular, the NCA will be monitoring to what extent the announced price increase will be implemented and whether such behavior would amount to a prohibited restrictive agreement. The NCA also reminded the dairy companies that a fine for such infringement could be up to 10% of the annual turnover.
Merger control
Nine new merger notifications
In January and February, the Albanian NCA announced the receipt of nine new merger notifications:
- Freedom 1 Srl et al. (Italy) - Assist Digital SpA (Italy)
- Wienerberger Participations SAS (France) - Terreal Holding SAS (France)
- OTP Bank Nyrt. (Hungary) - IPOTEKA BANK (Uzbekistan)
- Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners Group, Statkraft Ireland Limited - Bore Array Limited, North Irish Sea Array Windfarm Limited
- Vodafone Hungary PLC (Hungary) - "ANTENNA HUNGÁRIA" PLC (Hungary)
- Elkem Carbon AS (Norway) - Vum, a.s. (Slovakia)
- CARIAD Estonia AS (Estonia), Horizon Together Holding Ltd. (Cayman Islands) [JV]
- CARIAD SE (Germany) - paragon semvox GmbH (Germany)
- Statkraft Peru S.A. (Peru) Statkraft Peru Holding S.A.C. (Peru) - GR Vale S.A.C. (Peru), GR Bayovar S.A.C. (Peru)
Originally sent by e-mail. Original issue (mailchi.mp) · gajin.rs