CROATIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Mirna Mišetić, Mišetić & Partners
8.3 Ability of Third Parties to Appeal Clearance Decisions
cess. This serves a function comparable to market testing, allowing the Agency to assess the effective - ness and adequacy of the remedies before adopting its final decision. 7.3 Confidentiality The fact of the notification and a brief description of the transaction are made public once the Agency has received a complete notification. At that stage, the Agency publishes a public call on its website contain - ing basic information on the parties’ activities and the markets potentially affected by the concentration. Business secrets pointed out by the parties are redacted to ensure the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information. 7.4 Co-Operation With Other Jurisdictions The Agency co-operates with the European Com - mission and other EU competition authorities within the European Competition Network (ECN), as well as internationally through the International Competition Network (ICN). The sharing of business secrets with other jurisdictions is generally not possible without the parties’ consent. Parties may grant waivers permit - ting such exchanges, but there are no adverse legal consequences if they decline to do so. 8. Appeals and Judicial Review 8.1 Access to Appeal and Judicial Review Decisions of the Agency are subject to judicial review before the Croatian High Administrative Court. An action must be brought within 30 days of service of the decision. 8.2 Typical Timeline for Appeals All proceedings before the High Administrative Court of the Republic of Croatia initiated under the Competi - tion Act are urgent proceedings. However, no concrete practice vis-à-vis the timeline can be cited, as there have been no decisions prohibiting concentrations in Croatia for many years.
According to the Croatian Act on Administrative Dis - putes, standing to challenge the decision is not limited to the notifying parties, but extends to any person or undertaking that can demonstrate that the deci - sion has adversely affected its legal interests, which may include competitors or other market participants active on markets potentially affected by the concen - tration. However, there is no known case law dem - onstrating that this has been successfully applied in practice. 9. Foreign Direct Investment/Subsidies Review 9.1 Legislation and Filing Requirements Croatia has an FDI screening regime under the For - eign Investment Screening Act (Official Gazette No 136/2025, in force from 13 November 2025), which implements Regulation (EU) 2019/452. The regime operates independently from merger control and may require a separate filing based on security and public order considerations. Where applicable, a transaction may therefore be subject to parallel FDI screening as well as merger notification. In addition, foreign subsidies are regulated at EU level under a separate legal framework and are not part of national merger control. Where the relevant thresholds are met, separate notification obligations before the European Commission may arise.
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