SERBIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Milica Subotić and Julijana Jevtić, Subotić Law
3.6 Penalties/Consequences of Incomplete or Inaccurate Notification If the notification is deemed incomplete, the case han - dler at the Serbian NCA shall request the notifying parties to provide additional information, within a fixed timeline. Should the parties fail to provide the addi - tional information, the notification will be dismissed. Pursuant to the Competition Act, parties that do not comply with a request to provide all required documen - tation and/or data, or provide false or incorrect data, face procedural fines in the range of EUR500–5,000 per day of delay, capped at 10% of the total annual turnover achieved by the violating undertaking(s). In several merger control cases, the Serbian NCA has imposed such procedural fines. 3.7 Review Process Under the Competition Act, the Serbian NCA is obliged to decide within one month from the receipt of a com - plete notification whether to clear the transaction in a summary (Phase I) proceeding or to open, ex officio, an investigation (Phase II) proceeding. The “clock will start ticking” only once the notifying party has submitted all documents which the Serbian NCA requires for assessment of the concentration, but there is no formal deadline for the review of complete - ness of the notification. If the authority does not decide within one month from the receipt of a complete merger notification (to clear the concentration in a summary (Phase I) proceed - ing or open an investigation (Phase II) proceeding), the concentration is deemed cleared (so-called tacit approval). However, should the Serbian NCA decide to open investigation (Phase II) proceedings, it must decide ultimately whether to (unconditionally or conditionally) clear or prohibit the transaction within four months from the date of its opening, otherwise the concentra - tion is deemed cleared. The vast majority of transactions cleared by the Ser - bian NCA were decided within the summary (Phase I) proceeding. In practice, in such cases, if the parties
prepared the notification well, a clearance decision was issued within 25 days from the date of filing. Phase II includes a deeper investigation by the author - ity, including detailed market surveys. Sometimes it includes an economic analysis and eventually the negotiation on remedies, so often it lasts for a long - er period beyond the above-mentioned four-month deadline. 3.8 Pre-Notification Discussions With Authorities Pre-notification discussions with the Serbian NCA are not regulated and, in practice, they are rare. 3.9 Requests for Information During the Review Process The Serbian NCA enjoys significant information-gath - ering powers and may request information from the parties to the concentration and from third parties (customers, suppliers and competitors) as well as from state officials and agencies (ministries, tax authorities, statistical office, Serbian Chamber of Commerce, etc). Requests for information (RFIs) during the merger review process are relatively frequent and can be bur - densome for the parties to the concentration. If the Serbian NCA sends an RFI to the parties, the period from the date of delivery of such request to the date of response is not included in the statutory time limits for issuing a decision. 3.10 Accelerated Procedure There are two types of notification to be used: the short and the long form, depending on the actual transaction. For more information on the criteria for the applicabil - ity of a short-form notification and on summary (Phase I) proceedings, please see 3.5 Information Included in a Filing and 3.7 Review Process .
4. Substance of the Review 4.1 Substantive Test
The Serbian NCA uses a test of significant impediment to effective competition. Consequently, a concentra -
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