CYPRUS Law and Practice Contributed by: Marios Pelides, Dominique Pelides and Konstantinos Efthymiadis, Georgiades & Pelides
The Law contains some guidance designed to enable notifying parties to comply with this obligation, which is summarised below. Relevant Product Markets A relevant product market will comprise all prod - ucts and/or services that a consumer may consider interchangeable (or which can be substituted for one another) on the basis of their price, characteristics (including their physical and technical characteristics) and intended use. Relevant Geographic Markets The relevant geographic market will include the area in which there is supply and demand of/for the rel - evant products and/or services by the undertakings involved in the concentration. Conditions of competi - tion in the relevant geographic market should be suf - ficiently homogenous, and the relevant geographic market should be distinguishable from neighbouring geographic areas (particularly on the basis that there are different conditions of competition in such neigh - bouring areas). In determining the relevant geographic market, parties should particularly take into account the following: • the nature and characteristics of the relevant prod - ucts and/or services; • the existence of barriers to entry; • consumer preferences; • differences in the participants’ market shares com - pared to neighbouring geographic areas; and Relevant product and/or geographic markets (and plausible alternative product and geographic mar - kets) will be classed as affected markets where they are within the Republic of Cyprus and either (i) two or more of the parties are engaged in business activi - ties in the same relevant market which afford them a combined market share of at least 15%; or (ii) a party is engaged in business activities in a relevant market which is downstream or upstream to another relevant market in which a different party is engaged in busi - ness activities, provided that: • price differences. Affected Markets
• any party has a market share of at least 25% in any relevant market; or • the combined market share of both parties comes to at least 25%. Other Markets Likely to Be Significantly Affected by the Concentration Markets which may be classed as such include, but are not limited to, the following. • Markets where any party has a market share exceeding 25% and another party is a potential competitor in the same market. The term “potential competitor” is construed relatively narrowly and will only extend to parties that plan to enter the rel - evant market or have developed or pursued plans to do so within the last three years. • Markets where any party has a market share exceeding 25% and another party holds significant intellectual property rights in the same market. • Markets where any of the parties are engaged in business activities on closely related neighbouring markets, and their individual or combined market share in any of those markets is at least 25%. Product markets will be classed as closely related neighbouring markets where the products con - cerned are complementary to each other, or where they belong to a range of products that are gener - ally purchased by the same consumer group(s) for the same final use(s). 4.3 Reliance on Case Law In examining definitions of relevant product and/or geographic markets, as well as in reaching its decision more generally, the CPC will have regard to (and will, in most cases, attempt to be consistent with) its own past practice. It will also have regard to decisions of the EC and the European Court of Justice, as well as decisions of other member-state competition authori - ties (notably, Greece). 4.4 Competition Concerns The CPC examines a variety of competition concerns in reaching a decision. These include: • the structure of the affected markets and other markets that may be significantly impacted by the concentration;
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