MONTENEGRO Law and Practice Contributed by: Bisera Andrijasevic and Marija Ksenija Popović, BDK Advokati
tures). Structural measures are imposed only when behavioural remedies are deemed insuf- ficient, excessively burdensome, or if previously imposed behavioural measures were not fully implemented. 5.4 Negotiating Remedies With Authorities During the procedure, and no later than 30 days after receiving the statement of objections, the notifying party may propose measures, condi - tions and deadlines to the Agency to address the negative effects of the concentration on the relevant market. If the Agency finds the proposed measures, con - ditions and deadlines sufficient to restore effec - tive competition in the market, it may issue a decision mandating the implementation of these measures along with the terms and deadlines for their enforcement. Although the Competition Act suggests that remedies can only be proposed after the Agen - cy issues a statement of objections, in practice, remedies can be offered from the outset of the merger control process, even before an investi - gation (Phase II) is initiated. The Agency cannot propose or impose remedies that were not suggested by the notifying party. 5.5 Conditions and Timing for Divestitures The Competition Act explicitly allows the Agency to impose measures to be complied with either before or after the implementation of the con - centration. Therefore, the specific deadline for the implementation of each remedy is set out in the clearance decision. If the parties fail to comply with the measures, the Agency has the authority to revoke its decision.
Failure to comply with the agreed-upon remedies may result in fines for the violating undertak - ing, ranging from 1% to 10% of its total annual turnover from the financial year preceding the violation. Additionally, responsible individuals within the undertaking may be fined between EUR1,000 and EUR4,000. 5.6 Issuance of Decisions The Agency issues a formal decision to the notifying party either approving or prohibiting a transaction. It publishes only the operative part of the decision, which includes the dispositive of the decision and any imposed measures, on its official website. The explanatory part of the decision is not publicly available. Prohibitions and conditional approvals of con - centrations are rare in the Agency’s decisional practice. The low notification thresholds result in a significant number of foreign-to-foreign transactions being notified to the Agency. These transactions are assessed irrespective of the presence or absence of local effects. However, as they generally do not raise competition con - cerns, foreign-to-foreign transactions are typi - cally cleared unconditionally in summary pro - ceedings. 5.7 Prohibitions and Remedies for Foreign-to-Foreign Transactions 6. Ancillary Restraints and Related Transactions 6.1 Clearance Decisions and Separate Notifications Neither the Competition Act nor its accompany - ing bylaws explicitly regulate ancillary restraints. Nevertheless, the Agency evaluates ancillary restraints following the principles set out in the European Commission’s Ancillary Restraints
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