MONTENEGRO Law and Practice Contributed by: Bisera Andrijasevic and Marija Ksenija Popović, BDK Advokati
to reference relevant EU provisions and prece - dents to support their arguments in proceedings before the Agency. 1.2 Legislation Relating to Particular Sectors The Competition Act is applicable to mergers regardless of the sector. However, additional specific sectoral regulations govern mergers within certain industries, as outlined below. • Banking any acquisition of a qualified share - holding in a credit institution – defined as a direct or indirect investment of at least 10% of capital or voting rights, or any investment granting significant influence over manage - ment, or any increase in an existing qualifying shareholding that would raise it to or above 20%, 33%, or 50% – requires prior authorisa - tion from the Central Bank of Montenegro; • Investment funds any person intending to acquire a qualified participation in an invest - ment fund management company is required to obtain the consent from the Capital Markets Commission for such acquisition. Furthermore, any person already holding a qualified participation who intends to increase their stake in the capital or voting rights of the management company to reach or exceed 10%, 20%, 30% or 50% is also obligated to secure the Commission’s approval for such an increase. • Insurance any acquisition of a qualified share - holding, defined as sole or joint, direct or indirect investment of at least 10% of capital or voting rights, or any investment granting significant influence over management or any increase in the existing qualifying sharehold - ing that would raise it to or above 20%, 30% or 50%, in a Montenegrin insurance com - pany must be pre-approved by the Insurance Supervision Agency.
• Telecommunications the Agency for Elec - tronic Communications and Postal Services is competent to provide an opinion to the Agency regarding the assessment of concen - trations or other forms of joint or co-ordinated actions by operators. As a competition protection measure, the Agency for Elec - tronic Communications and Postal Services may also prescribe conditions prohibiting the transfer of radio frequency usage rights or establish conditions for transfers that are not subject to concentration assessment under competition protection regulations if such a transfer could significantly distort market competition. 1.3 Enforcement Authorities As mentioned at 1.1. Merger Control Legisla- tion , the Agency ( Agencija za zaštitu konkurenci- je Crne Gore ) is responsible for the enforcement of the Competition Act. Depending on the sector in which the relevant merger occurs, the Agency may engage other regulatory authorities in the review process, such as the Central Bank of Montenegro, the Agency for Electronic Communications and Postal Ser - vices and the Insurance Supervision Agency.
2. Jurisdiction 2.1 Notification
Notification to the Agency is compulsory if the transaction meets the turnover thresholds (as outlined in 2.5 Jurisdictional Thresholds ). There are no exceptions to the compulsory notification, regardless of the local nexus. The Agency may, upon learning of an implement - ed concentration, require the concentration par - ticipants to notify the concentration, regardless
381 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook