MONTENEGRO Law and Practice Contributed by: Bisera Andrijasevic and Marija Ksenija Popović, BDK Advokati
form or as notarised copies. Additionally, these documents must be apostilled unless a bilateral agreement between Montenegro and the coun - try of origin waives the legalisation requirement for official documents. 3.6 Penalties/Consequences of Incomplete Notification If the notification is deemed incomplete, the Agency will issue a request for additional infor - mation and/or documents, setting a deadline of no less than three days and no more than 30 days from the date of receipt of the request. Failure to comply with the Agency’s request may result in a periodic penalty ranging from EUR500 to EUR5,000 per day, up to a maximum of 3% of the total revenue generated in the financial year preceding the year in which the proceed - ings were initiated. 3.7 Penalties/Consequences of Inaccurate or Misleading Information If a party submits inaccurate or misleading infor - mation in the filing, the penalty is the same as for non-compliance with the Agency’s request for additional information, as outlined in 3.6 Pen- alties/Consequences of Incomplete Notifica - tion . Also, the Agency may revoke its approval of a concentration if the decision was based on incorrect or false information. 3.8 Review Process The Competition Act does not explicitly distin - guish between Phase I and Phase II proceed - ings. The Agency has 105 days from the sub - mission of a complete notification to clear the transaction unconditionally, 125 days to issue a conditional approval, and 130 days to issue a decision prohibiting the concentration.
The Agency may request additional information at any point before granting clearance. Each request for information resets the timeline, with a new deadline starting from the day when the notifying party responds to the request. There - fore, parties can be certain that the concentra - tion will only be cleared by virtue of law after 130 business days have passed from the submission of a complete notification. Considering that the Agency does not issue a certificate of complete - ness, this deadline can become a moving target. In practice, the Agency typically takes two to three months to issue a clearance decision for non-issue concentrations. 3.9 Pre-Notification Discussions With Authorities Pre-notification discussions with the Agency are not regulated and the Agency does not practice them. It is not prohibited to request a meeting with the authority to discuss certain important issues or concerns before submitting the notifi - cation, but the Agency in general prefers to act on a submitted notification, considering that the deadlines provide for sufficient time for review. 3.10 Requests for Information During the Review Process Requests for information during the review process are frequent. In practice, at least one request for information is typically issued for non-issue concentrations, while two or three requests are common in cases involving hori - zontal overlaps or vertical issues on the relevant market. The requests can be burdensome for the parties, as the Agency often demands informa - tion outlined in the Merger Notification Guide - lines, even in cases when such information is irrelevant to the assessment of the notification or unrelated to the relevant markets.
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