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Competition Policy in Slovakia Fifth Annual Conference on Competition Enforcement in the CEE Member States . Radoslav Tóth Antimonopoly Office of the SR Bratislava, 21 February 2014. Priority Sectors and Practices. Financial sector One of the most important driving factors of economy
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Competition Policy in SlovakiaFifth Annual Conference on Competition Enforcement in the CEE Member States Radoslav Tóth Antimonopoly Office of the SR Bratislava, 21 February 2014
Priority Sectors and Practices • Financial sector • One of the most important driving factors of economy • Banking sector • Tying (loans and current account) • Bank charges • Food industry • Focus on the milk market • Highly sensitive commodity of daily consumption • Heating sector • Sector inquiry with focus on central heating systems • Practices: cartels, bid rigging
Cartel Cases in 2013 • 11 dawn raids at 33 undertakings in 7 sectors • Banking (bank charges for natural persons), geodesy and cartography, IT, building industry, teaching aids, chemical industry, automobile industry • Initiation of 5 administrative proceedings • IT technologies – suspicion of a cartel agreement on application of a handling fee • 3 bid rigging cases (2 financed from EU funds) • Decisions • Cartel of three banks in the cashless foreign exchange operations market. Fine of 3.2 million EUR for the bank • Courts • Construction cartel case upheld by the Supreme Court of the SR (fine of nearly 45 mil. EUR) • Cartel of three banks - Supreme Court of the SR upheld the decision against VÚB (fine of 3,8 milEUR) and SLSP (fine of 3,2 mil EUR)
Construction Cartel Case • Largest cartel case with the total fines amounted to nearly € 45 000 000 EUR • Cartel of 6 major construction companies active in the SR • The cartel participants coordinated their conduct in the tender for the execution of works for the construction of the D1 highway Mengušovce - Jánovce • Key evidence was the match of price bids (index of unit prices of individual construction items) • Infringement of the national law as well as Article 101 TFEU
Abuse of Dominant Positionin 2013 • Fine over 10 mil. euro for the dominant company on the market of freight rail transport • Achievements in the Supreme Court of the SR • Case Slovnaft • Case ENVI-PAK
Merger Control in 2013 • 15 assessed mergers • All approved in the first phase • No merger was blocked • Significant merger in the telecommunications sector • Acquisition of exclusive direct control of the undertaking Slovak Telekom over the undertaking DIGI SLOVAKIA
Legislative Developments • Amendment to the Act on Protection of Competition • December 2013 – interministry comment procedure • 18 February 2014 – the amendment passed the Legislative Council of the Government • Consent of the Government of the SR • National Council of the SR • Expected effective date - July 1, 2014
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