Published regularly, this newsletter reports on the activities of the OECD/GVH Regional Centre for Competition. It provides information about recent cases and developments in the participating economies in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. News, case studies and articles from this region are welcome. If you have material that you wish to be considered for publication, please contact Renato Ferrandi ([email protected]) and Miranda Molnar ([email protected]).	About the Budapest centre
	Calendar of activities ‌
	Past Events and Annual Reports
	OECD Competition  main page
	Competition Global Relations page

 Special edition: Issue 20 - September 2022

 

‌

Download: English l Русский    This special edition is dedicated to regional co-operation for more effective competition policy and summarises the contributions made during the Heads of Agency meeting held in March 2022. The following articles are included: Declarations by Heads of Agencies of the OECD-GVH Regional Centre for Competition The Importance of International Co-operation International Co-operation on Competition: Lessons from Past Experiences When the compass points East, Drivers for increased regional co-operation in Eastern Europe and Central Asia Role and potential of regional co-operation for competition authorities OECD Competition Trends; Key trends of cartel enforcement in Eastern Europe and Central Asia What’s Next in International Co-operation? . Sustainable Development and Competition Law: GVH Special Project Lear – Technical Assistance Projects An overview of Lear’s technical assistance projects to national competition authorities OECD membership: three candidates from Eastern Europe Challenges and future projects of the RCC

 

Previous issues

 

Issue 19 - July 2022 English l Русский (pdf) 

In this issue: Effective investigation in competition cases; Serbia's competition authority; The Fimi Media case: lessons learned in enforcing high-level corruption cases in Eastern Europe and Central Asia; Criteria for predatory pricing in the abuse of dominance and arbitration: Croatian Case CCA v. Hrvatska Pošta d.d.; Effective investigations in competition cases – an overview of Serbia’s track record so far; Effective Investigations in Competition Cases in Georgia; Performing unannounced inspection (Dawn raid) in Montenegro; Application of “soft law” instruments in anti-monopoly control in Kazakhstan; Investigation in fertilizers market in Albania: DAP, Nitrate, Urea; Oil case in Kosovo; Anti-competitive agreement between companies providing logistics services in Armenia; U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division Submission; Comprehensive exclusivity strategy and abuse of dominance: the Italian Competition Authority’s approach in the Unilever case; Bid rigging in the construction industry: the highest fines ever imposed in Austria.

 

Issue 18 - January 2022 English | Русский (pdf) 

In this issue: Using Market Studies to Tackle Emerging Competition Issues; Increasing mark-ups and concentration: a cross-country perspective using firm-level data; Market Studies in Moldova; Experience of the Serbian Competition Authority with Market Studies; Sectoral Inquiry into the Market for Hospital Services in Albania; Sectoral Inquiry into the Electricity Market in Bulgaria; Competitive Neutrality in the Banking Sector: The Case of Ukraine; Antimonopoly investigations and analyses of digital markets: the FAS Russia practice; Market Studies in Azerbaijan: Selection, Analysis and Assessment of Competition Issues and Eventual Use of the Findings of Market Studies; Georgian Competition Practice and Policy in the Era of Digital Marketing: What is New Under the Sun?; Market studies promoting competition: the case of the Hungarian Competition Authority; Problems of Competition Restrictions in Healthcare in the Republic of Belarus; The CNMC’s experience in market studies in Spain: practical tips, by Lara Tobías Peña; Market studies as the start of something bigger. A case study from the Netherlands: market study into mobile app stores; Grocery market study: Experience from New Zealand; ICN Resources for Competition Agencies to Plan and Conduct Market Studies

 

 

Issue 17 - July 2021 English | Русский (pdf) 

In this issue: The fight against bid rigging: a goal for competition authorities in Eastern Europe and Central Asia,Corruption, public procurement and competition in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: The Case of the Energy sector in Ukraine, Tackling bid rigging in Serbia: B2M – A recent success story, Fight against bid-rigging in Romania: Highlights of the recent enforcement and advocacy activity of the Romanian Competition Council, Bid-rigging in Ukraine: Flavoured products, No smoke without fire or the curious case of proving cartels in public procurement in Georgia, Albanian bid-rigging Case, Bid-rigging in Kazakhstan: New steps in the fight against bid rigging (Automotive procurement cartel), Bid-rigging in Hungary: The basic principles of detecting public procurement collusion and the cooperation with public procurement Bodies, The Hellenic Competition Commission’s practice in bid-rigging cartels in the construction sector, An overview of the Hong Kong experience in fighting bid-rigging, Bid rigging investigations: The Israel Competition Authority experience, Fighting bid-rigging in Italy, Fighting bid rigging in the U.S., Legislative reforms in the field of economic competition in the Republic of Armenia, Literature digest on bid rigging.

 

 

Issue 16 - March 2021  English  | Русский (pdf) 

In this issue: Abuse of dominance in digital markets, yearly calendar of activities of the centre, Albania's competition authority, OECD meetings from December 2020 and the following articles: Market Power by Digital Giants: Use and Abuse, Consumer Policy: A Complement to Competition Policy in Tackling Dominant Online Businesses, An Abuse Of Dominance Case in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Abuse of Dominance In Digital Markets – The Serbian Experience, Abuse of dominance in digital markets in Russia, Allegro, the Local Giant In Poland You Have Probably Never Heard Of, The Brazilian Google Case, A win for Innovation in Canada: Abuse of dominance by the Toronto Real Estate Board, Digital Markets and Competition Concerns: An Indian Perspective, Google Shopping Decision: Paving the Way for Efficient Digital Markets in Turkey, Creation of an Independent Antimonopoly Body of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Maxim Shaskolsky has been appointed Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service, The recent amendments to the Georgian Law on Competition.

 

Issue 15 - July 2020

• Newsletter: English  | Русский (pdf)
• Special COVID supplement English  | Русский (pdf) 

In this issue: Competitive neutrality, update on Moldova's competition authority, summary the OECD meetings held in June 2020. The following articles are also included: Competitive Neutrality in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: A key tool to foster economic recovery, Corporate governance of SOEs in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Policy options for ensuring a level playing field, Competitive Neutrality and the Role of the Commission for Protection of Competition of Serbia, Administrative Monopoly: A New Threat for Competition Neutrality?, Competitive Neutrality in the Russian Federation, Enterprises under Public Ownership and Competition: An overview of problems in Ukraine, Using the Competition Toolkit to Ensure a Level Playing Field : Indecopi’s experience enforcing the Unfair Competition Act, Tools for Addressing Competitive Neutrality, Advocacy Tools for Addressing Competitive Neutrality Issues : The Italian Experience, A Level Playing Field Requires Active Enforcement and Advocacy: Insights from the “SME Policy Index: Eastern Partner Countries 2020”.

In the special supplement: Angel Gurría, Frédéric Jenny and a handful of competition experts reflect on competition in the time of COVID-19. Articles included: Competition Policy in the Time of COVID-19 by Angel Gurría, Economic Resilience, Globalisation and Market Governance: Facing the Covid-19 Test by Frédéric Jenny, Competition Policy Responses to the Crisis in Eastern Europe and Central Asia: Key findings from the Virtual Seminar of the OECD-GVH Regional Centre for Competition, OECD Competition Policy Responses to COVID-19, ICN/OECD Webinar on ‘Competition Investigations during the COVID-19 Crisis’ and Antitrust responses to the COVID-19 crisis by the EU Commission, US DOJ and US FTC.

 

Issue 14 - February 2020  English  | Русский (pdf) 

In this issue: Summaries of the OECD meetings held in December 2019 and the following articles: Empowering consumers in the banking and insurance sectors, Quo Vadis? Policy challenges in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Albanian Competition Authority’s competition enforcement and advocacy activities in the banking and insurance sector, Are commercial banks more “reliable” than insurance companies?, Exclusionary conduct of Georgian public procurers to the prejudice of insurance companies, The Russian Federation’s experience of antitrust compliance in the banking and insurance sectors, Specificities of the Serbian insurance market and the protection of competition, Competition enforcement and advocacy in the banking and insurance sectors, Competition in the banking sector in Spain, Competition in the financial sector in Portugal, Inside a competition authority: Ukraine and interview with Mr Yuriy Terentyev, Chairman of the Anti-Monopoly Committee of Ukraine.

 

Issue 13 - July 2019  English  | Русский (pdf)  

In this issue: OECD-GVH RCC centre's activities from January-May 2019, summaries of the OECD meetings held in June 2019 and the following articles: The AMCU’s Competition Enforcement and Advocacy Activities in the Ukrainian Pharmaceutical Markets, Competition Enforcement in the Pharmaceutical Sector: The Case for Turkey in Light of the Turkish Pharmaceutical Sector Report, Pharma Antitrust Enforcement in Italy, Compliance With Antitrust Laws in the Pharmaceutical Sector, Restrictions By State Bodies – Are Recommendations Really a Useful Tool? The Case of the Parallel Import of Drugs in Georgia, Market Definition in the Pharmaceutical Sector: The Experience of the Serbian Merger Control, Eurasian Economic Commission - Supranational Antitrust Regulator and  Literature Digest - Selection of interesting articles by OECD Pedro Caro de Sousa.

 

Issue 12 - January 2019  English  | Русский (pdf)  

In this issue: OECD-GVH RCC centre's activities (including several seminars and judge trainings) [See also: Calendar of Activities], Report on the OECD November 2018 Competition Meetings [Topics included: Publicly Funded Healthcare Markets, Treatment of Privileged Information in Competition Cases, Suspensory Effects of Merger Notifications and Gun Jumping, Peer Review of Brazil,Personalised Pricing in the Digital Era, Quality Considerations in the Zero-price Economy, Excessive Pricing in Pharmaceutical Markets, Competition and Fair Societies, Session on the Relation between Gender and Competition, Benefits and Challenges of Regional Agreements, Authorities’ Investigative Powers in Practice and Competition Law and State-Owned Enterprises]. See also: Roundtables page

Other articles: Fight Against Corruption and Competition Law – The Serbian Experience, The “Car Wash” Investigations in Brazil: Inception, Scope, and Implications for Competition Enforcement, Experience of €14,000, Albanian Case in a Bid Rigging Procurement Procedure – Fight Against Corruption, Double Blow to National, Economic and Legal Design of the Unfair Competition Act, Competition Rules in the Eurasian Economic Union; Literature Digest - Selection of interesting articles by OECD Pedro Caro de Sousa.

 

Issue 11 - July 2018  English  | Русский  (pdf) 

In this issue: OECD-GVH RCC centre's activities (including several seminars and judge trainings) [See also: Calendar of Activities], Report on the OECD June 2018 Competition Meetings [Topics included: Taxi and Ride-Hailing Markets, Co-operation and Enforcement, leniency programmes,  designing and testing effective consumer-facing remedies, E-commerce and Competition, Non-price Effects of Mergers, Market Concentration, Blockchain and Competition ].See also: Roundtables page.

Other articles: OECD discussions on Digitalisation, Algorithms 101 (Romania), Competition Dilemmas in the Digital Age: Bricks or Clicks (Croatia), Competition Restraints in Online Markets: The Case for Turkey, Specific Aspects of Establishing a Dominant Position in the Digital Economy (Russia), Competition Advocacy Experience of the Albanian Competition Authority (Albania), Development of Competition as a Priority of State Economic Policy in Russia, Implementation of the Competition Chapter of the EU-Georgia Association Agreement – the Continued Progress (Georgia), Questions Regarding the Interpretation and/or Application of Competition and State Aid Law in the area of energy? – The Energy Community Secretariat Will Help!; Literature Digest - Selection of interesting articles by OECD Pedro Caro de Sousa

 

Issue 10 - January 2018  English  | Русский  (pdf) 

In this issue: OECD-GVH RCC centre's activities (including several seminars and judge trainings) [See also: Calendar of Activities], Report on the OECD December 2018 Competition Meetings [Topics included: Financial Crisis, Extraterritorial Reach of Remedies, Safe Harbours, Common-ownership, Competition and Democracy, Judicial Perspectives in Competition Law and Challenges faced by Small and Developing Agencies].See also: Roundtables page. 

Other articles: Antitrust Remedies - What do we try to achieve, and how? (EU), Smart Remedies in Abuse of Dominance Cases (Brazil), Mobile Phones Dominating not only Our Lives, but also Competition! (Albania), Consumers First: the Latest Copyright Related Case of the Hungarian Competition Authority (Hungary), Remedies Issued by the Turkish Competition Authority in Abuse of Dominance Cases (Turkey), Literature Digest - Selection of interesting articles by OECD Pedro Caro de Sousa. 

Issue 9 - July 2017 English  | Русский (pdf) 

In this issue: OECD-GVH RCC centre's activities (including several seminars and judge trainings) [See also: Calendar of Activities], Report on the OECD June 2017 Competition Meetings [Topics included: Innovation in the electricity sector, Methodologies for conducting market studies, Aftermarkets, Rethinking the use of traditional tools in multi-sided markets, Algorithms and collusion [See also: Roundtables page]. 

Other articles: Requests for Information – Facilitating Exchange and Co-operation Between the OECD-GVH Regional Centre for Competition in Budapest’s Beneficiaries by OECD Sabine Zigeslki, Barking Up the Right Tree: Selecting and Prioritising Sectors for Market Studies by OECD James Mancini, Methodology for Conducting Market Studies by the Spanish Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC), Specific Features of Digital Product Market Analysis by FAS Russia, Experience of the Hungarian Competition Authority Relating to Market Studies by the Hungarian Competition Authority, Passenger Air Transportation Market of Georgia, Literature Digest - Selection of interesting articles by OECD Pedro Caro de Sousa.

Issue 8 - January 2017  English  | Русский  (pdf) 

In this issue: OECD-GVH RCC centre's activities (including several seminars and judge trainings) [See also: Calendar of Activities], Report on the OECD November 2016 Competition Meetings [Topics included: Innovation in land transport, Competition assessment: using empirical evidence, Geographic market definition, Agency decision making in merger cases, Big data, Price Discrimination, Review of policy recommendations to Ukraine by OECD and other International Organisations [See also: Roundtables page]. Report on the Dec 2016 OECD Global Forum on Competition [Topics: Promoting competition; Promoting human rights, The role of market studies as a tool to promote competition, Independence of competition authorities, Sanctions in antitrust cases].  

Other articles: Whistle-blower Hotline (BKMS system) by Germany, Cartel detection and the smart use of procurement data for this purpose in Hungary, Traditional and innovative methods for the detection of cartels in public procurement and tenders as practiced in Russia, Proactive screening by the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), The Aggregate Index of Competitive Pressure by the Romanian Competition Council, CADE’s Experience on the Development of Economic Filters for Detecting Cartels (Brazil), Influence of Market Information Systems on Competition: Experience of Ukraine

Issue 7 - July 2016  English  | Русский  (pdf) 

In this issue: OECD-GVH RCC centre's activities (including several seminars and judge trainings) [See also: Calendar of Activities], OECD June 2016 Competition Meetings  - Topics included: Disruptive Innovations in Legal Services, Public Interest Considerations in Merger Control, Jurisdictional Thresholds and Local Nexus in Merger Control, Fidelity rebates and Commitment Decisions in Antitrust Cases [See also: Roundtables page]. Other articles: Basic Building Blocks of Competition Policy Support Competitiveness in South East Europe, A Tried and Tested Way of Informal Co-operation Among Competition Authorities, Antimonopoly Regulation of Vertical Agreements in Russian Legislation, Dawn raids: Experience of the Serbian Commission for Protection of Competition, Fostering Interaction: Competition Creates More Efficient Public Procurement Markets, The Correlation of Bid Rigging and Corruption in Public Procurement Tenders in Hungarian Competition Law Practice.

Issue 6 - January 2016      English  | Русский  (pdf)

In this issue: OECD-GVH RCC Centre activities and 2016 programme presentation; Summary of OECD competition meetings held in October 2015 and Global Forum on Competition [Topics included: Cross platform parity agreements, Disruptive innovation in financial markets, Cartels involving intermediate goods, Does competition kill or create jobs? The links and drivers between competition and employement, The impact of disruptive innovations on competition law enforcement, Serial offenders: Why do some industries seem prone to endemic collusion?]; Articles: Nordic Competition Authorities and co-operation; Sofia Competition Forum – a response to the need for closer co-operation between competition authorities in the Balkan region; the role of competition authorities in the economic recovery; experience is the teacher of all things Improving enforcement decisions through ex-post evaluation; foreclosure effects of a parallel network of contracts The case of the Hungarian beer market; FAS Russia authorised to regulate tariffs; and State Aid Register of the Republic of Moldova.

 

Issue 5 - July 2015      English  | Русский  (pdf)

In this issue: OECD-GVH RCC Centre activities; Summary of OECD competition meetings held in June 2015;  10th Anniversary of the RCC; An Introduction to the OECD Toolkit; Competition Assessment of Laws and Regulations in Greece; Overview of the Hungarian Competition Advocacy Regime; Approaches to Demonstrating that a Competition Agency is Good Value for Money and Promoting Pro-Competitive Reforms that Foster Growth and Reduce Inequality.

 

Issue 4 - February 2015      English  | Русский  (pdf)

In this issue: OECD-GVH RCC Centre activities; Summary of OECD competition meetings held in June and October 2014; Behavioural Merger Remedies and Small Economies; Aspects of Commitment Decision Policy in Antitrust in Croatian; GVH Accepts MOL’s Proposal on Diesel Pricing;
Structural and Behavioural Commitments in Merger and Antitrust Proceedings.

 

Issue 3 - June 2014      English  | Русский  (pdf)

In this issue: OECD-GVH RCC Centre activities; meeting reports; OECD work on International Co-operation; OECD Review of Competition Law and Policy in Romania; New Developments Concerning Buyer Power - A Common European Approach towards Unfair Trading Practices Legislation?; Application of the Leniency Institute in the Republic of Serbia; Main Features of Antimonopoly Regulation; Control in the Electricity Sector in the Russian Federation.

 

Issue 2 - February 2014      English | Русский (pdf)

In this issue: OECD-GVH RCC Centre activities; meeting reports; Competition and Quality; Cartel Detection Methods in Hungary; Pay-For-Delay Deals; Serbian Law on Protection of Competition; Leniency Programme for Participation in Anticompetitive concerted actions in Ukraine; Monitoring in the Banking Sector in Kosovo; Competition Law and Policy in Montenegro.

 

Issue 1 - September 2013      English| Русский (pdf)

In this issue: OECD-GVH RCC Centre activities; meeting reports; National Health Insurance Fund Act Restricts Competition in the Retail Market of Reimbursable Drugs in Bulgaria; Croatian Competition Enforcement Challenges; The Development of the Leniency Programme in Hungary; Antitrust Regulation in the Field of Intellectual Property.