100 Session of the Competition Council

Zagreb, 2 March 2008 – In the case relating to the acquisition of a controlling interest by the undertaking Styria Media International AG in the undertakings Dnevnik d.o.o and Poslovni dnevnik digital d.o.o. the Competition Council decided not to oppose the notified concentration and to declare it compatible with the relevant provisions of both the Competition Act and the Media Act. In spite of Styria’s significant presence in the media publishing market in Croatia, it is the view of the Council that the implementation of the proposed concentration will not significantly affect competition given that Styria is entering the Croatian business news dailies publishing market where only one such publisher is present, Dnevnik d.o.o., who publishes the business news daily Poslovni dnevnik. Styria is also entering a structured e-business news publishers’ market where the acquisition of Poslovni dnevnik digital d.o.o. – internet provider poslovni.hr – will not appreciably affect the market in question. The concentration between the undertakings Konzum d.d. and Iredal d.o.o. from Split in the form of the acquisition of a controlling interest of the former company in the latter, was also deemed compatible and authorised by the Council. The Council decided that the implementation of the concentration in question will produce no significant effects on the relevant markets – the wholesale and the retail market in groceries, food, beverages and sanitary articles – in the territory of the Republic of Croatia or on the local level (Split-Dalmatia County, Šibenik-Knin County and Dubrovnik-Neretva County) given that the market share of the undertaking Konzum thereby grows by less than 0.3 % on both national and local level. Second, the concentration is deemed not to produce anticompetitive effects in the relevant prepaid phone cards wholesale market in the territory of the Republic of Croatia. Third, no replies to the request for information which would challenge the implementation of the proposed concentration from the undertakings active on the market concerned or on the neighbouring markets have been received. Fourth, the Council also took into account the market dynamism, its openness to new entrants but also the possible oscillations in the current market power and deviations of market shares of the incumbents, particularly the appreciably decreasing market share of Iredal in 2007. Upon the request of the Ministry of the Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship the Council also authorised state aid contained in the proposed Annual employment promotion programme for 2008 relating to the section on state aid for employment and training.