Communication
The aim of the protection of market competition is primarily to create benefits for consumers and equal conditions for all entrepreneurs on the market, who, acting in accordance with the existing rules and competing on the market with the quality, price and innovation of their products and services, contribute to the overall development of the economy.
Decisions of the High Administrative Court
In the first case, by dismissing the claim of the claimants the High Administrative Court backed the CCA decision of 17 March 2015 establishing that the personal protection firms Sokol Marić, AKD-Zaštita, Securitas Hrvatska, Klemm Sigurnost, Bilić-Erić, V GRUPA and Arsenal-Ivezić, concluded a prohibited horizontal agreement – cartel, when the members of the cartel on 23 October 2013 participated in a meeting where they agreed on the minimum price of the personal protection security services amounting to 32.52 Kuna.
A cartel agreement fixing the minimum price constitutes a hard core restriction. In addition, the CCA found that the majority of undertakings that took part in the meeting have also bidden in tender procedures that followed the meeting with the same, agreed price, which is the evidence that the agreement has been implemented in practice.
The CCA imposed on the members of the personal protection cartel a fine in the total amount of 5.325 million Kuna.
The High Administrative Court fully accepted the explanation of the decision of the CCA stating that this cartel agreement contained restrictions by object. Therefore, it was not necessary for the CCA to provide evidence whether it produced effects.
The High Administrative Court dismissed the complaints of all the involved undertakings with respect to the level of the imposed fines, save for the complaint of the undertaking V grupa (where the CCA took into account the mitigating circumstances and imposed a fine in the amount of 289,000 Kuna) in which the Court found that taking into account the pre-bankruptcy settlement proceeding of the undertaking concerned the CCA should reconsider and further lower the fine or impose a symbolic fine.
At the same time, the High Administrative Court confirmed the claim of ten undertakings in the marinas’ cartel that had been also established by the CCA on 17 March 2015. In the proceedings against the Adriatic International Club, Tehnomont, Marina Šibenik, Ilirija from Biograd, Marina Hramina from Murter, Shipyard and Marina from Betina, Marina Punat, Marina Dalmacija and Marina Borik from Zadar and the Croatian Chamber of the Economy, that was opened following the initiative of the undertaking Aba Vela, the CCA established that the representatives of the marinas who participated in the meeting of the Council of the Croatian Association of Nautical Tourism (Croatian Marina Association) under the aegis of the Croatian Chamber of the Economy in October 2012 in Biograd na moru, exchanged information relating to future pricing policies for berthing services.
When an undertaking reveals to its competitors strategic information concerning its future pricing plans, it is considered a hard core restriction and the CCA imposed a total fine of 2.363,000 Kuna on the undertakings concerned.
However, the High Administrative Court found that the challenged decision had been based on insufficiently established facts of the case and ordered the CCA to reverse the proceeding in the case concerned and rectify the inconsistencies in compliance with the legal standing of the Court contained in its ruling.