Further to investigation proceedings initiated back in September 2020 against distributers and sellers of consumers electronics in Serbia – Roaming Electronics d.o.o. Beograd, Tehnomanija d.o.o. Beograd, and Comtrade Distribution d.o.o. Beograd – the Serbian Commission for Protection of Competition (“Commission”) continued to investigate this market. Namely, the Commission have recently extended the scope of already opened antitrust proceedings by including companies Gigatron eksport-import, Tehnomedia centar d.o.o., Emmezeta Srbija d.o.o. and XLS d.o.o., active in sale of consumer electronics, as parties to the investigation proceedings. The Commission explained in the relevant decisions on initiation of the proceedings that it found reasonable grounds to believe that companies Gigatron eksport-import, Tehnomedia centar d.o.o., Emmezeta Srbija d.o.o., XLS d.o.o., as customers of Roaming Electronics d.o.o. Beograd and Comtrade Distribution d.o.o. Beograd, respectively, have not set their retail prices of the products concerned independently, but have fixed them in cooperation with the relevant distributors. As further explained by the Commission, resale/retail price maintenance as a particular type of anticompetitive behaviour may be committed by a supplier only, as well as by both parties in the product distribution channel as a single infringement of competition by such parties, in which case the retailer is held jointly liable with the supplier for this type of violation of the Law on Protection of Competition. Based on the information and data currently at its disposal, the Commission found reasonable grounds to believe that said retailers have operated at the retail level in the last five years, and in particular during 2019 and 2020, in a manner where they were involved in the resale price maintenance.

It remains to be seen how the Commission will handle the cases in the future and what will be the outcomes of the aforementioned proceedings.

For more information please contact Tamara Zejak