The Croatian Competition Agency (CCA) performs administrative and professional activities relating to competition, in the area of anti-trust as well as state aid . The competences of the CCA are regulated by the Competition Act (Official Gazette, No 122/2003) and the State Aid Act (Official Gazette, No 47/03 and 60/04).

Competition - Anti-trust

Competition law has been established with the objective to provide for free competition between undertakings in the market. Free competition is of essential importance for all countries which base their economies on the principle of free market - where the distribution of resources depends on the relationship between supply and demand, and is not a result of state-related measures aimed at intervening in the affairs of undertakings. Competition rules are applied with the objective to create a market where the undertakings are equally represented and perform their activities under the same conditions, with the aim of their market position to be evaluated primarily by the quality of goods or services they provide. In this sense competition law undertakes the task to prevent particular practices and business activities which may place some undertakings at a competitive disadvantage and thereby challenge free competition between undertakings.

The CCA was first established by the Decision of the Croatian Parliament of 20 September 1995 and its operating activities started early in 1997.

Pursuant to the provisions of the new Competition Act which entered into force on 7 August 2003 and has been applied since 1 October 2003, the Competition Council adopted the new Statute and proposed to the Government of the Republic of Croatia all necessary bylaws relating to competition within the meaning of Article 11(1) thereof. All proposed secondary legislation has been subsequently adopted, as follows: Regulation on notification and assessment of concentrations, Regulation on the definition of relevant market, Regulation on block exemption granted to certain categories of vertical agreements, Regulation on agreements of minor importance, Regulation on block exemption granted to agreements on distribution and servicing of motor vehicles, Regulation on block exemption granted to certain categories of horizontal agreements, Regulation on block exemption granted to certain categories of technology transfer agreements and Regulation on block exemption granted to insurance agreements. Given that all above mentioned regulations have been brought into compliance with the relevant EC regulations covering the respective areas, the harmonization process of the secondary legislation with the EC acquis in the area concerned is considered to be completed.

State Aid

According to the Croatian legislation, state aid shall be considered all actual and potential expenses or decreased revenue of the state granted by an aid provider in any form whatsoever by favouring certain aid beneficiaries in the market. Given that state aid directly influences free competition it must be monitored, particularly in the market economy oriented countries. The eventual objective of this monitoring is a gradual decrease and suspension of state aid in general.

The State Aid Act entered into force on 2 April 2003. The Regulation on state aid (Official Gazette, No 121/2003) was adopted pursuant to the provisions of the Sate Aid Act and entered into force on 1 August 2003.