On 26 October 2023 the Croatian Competition Agency (CCA) opened ex-officio infringement proceeding against the undertakings \u010cakove\u010dki mlinovi d.d. from \u010cakovec and Tvornica sto\u010dne hrane d.d. from \u010cakovec, based on indices that these undertakings fixed the purchase price of wheat in the relevant market in the period from 2020 \u2013 2022 and thereby participated in a cartel within the meaning of Article 8 paragraph 1 of the Competition Act. The alleged infringement was communicated to the CCA on 12 July 2022 by the Committee for Agriculture of the Croatian Parliament raising concerns about possible secret price arrangements between the purchaser of wheat in 2022.<\/p>\n
The CCA carried out the preliminary market investigation in the relevant market and sought for circumstantial evidence to open an infringement proceeding against the purchasers of wheat with the view to establishing whether they violated competition rules by entering a prohibited price agreement in the period from 2019 \u2013 2022.<\/p>\n
The data and information analysed during the preliminary market investigation revealed that out of 17 wheat purchasers only the agreements of the undertakings \u010cakove\u010dki mlinovi and Tvornica sto\u010dne hrane contained the identical wheat purchase prices in all five categories of wheat in 2020, 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n
In line with its powers and based on the search order of the High Administrative Court, the CCA commenced a surprise inspection of the premises of the undertakings concerned reasonably suspecting that the evidence of the conclusion of a prohibited price fixing agreement might be held on the premises of the undertakings concerned and\/or in the possession of their employees.<\/p>\n
Any agreement between two or more independent undertakings that operate at the same level of production or distribution, which have as their object or effect the distortion of competition in the relevant market, and in particular those which directly or indirectly fix purchase or selling prices or any other trading conditions constitute hard core restrictions.<\/p>\n
The CCA notes here that the mere opening of an infringement proceeding does not prejudice the infringement of competition rules. Whether \u010cakove\u010dki mlinovi and Tvornica sto\u010dne hrane committed a serious infringement of competition rules by concluding a price fixing agreement in the wheat purchase market, the CCA will decide on the merit of the case according to the established facts of any case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On 26 October 2023 the Croatian Competition Agency (CCA) opened ex-officio infringement proceeding against the undertakings \u010cakove\u010dki mlinovi d.d. from \u010cakovec and Tvornica sto\u010dne hrane d.d. from \u010cakovec, based on indices that these undertakings fixed the purchase price of wheat in the relevant market in the period from 2020 \u2013 2022 and thereby participated in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n