SERBIA Trends and Developments Contributed by: Uroš Popović and Tina Petrić, Drašković Popović & Partners
It was established that the transaction repre - sents horizontal concentration, given that the parties involved are direct competitors in the relevant market. The combined market share of the participants following the implementation of the concentration would be approximately 62% (CEE-BIG: 30%, NEPI: 32%). Despite the high combined market share, the Commission concluded that implementing the concentration would not significantly restrict, distort, or prevent competition in the relevant market. In its reasoning, the Commission emphasised that tenants possess substantial bargaining power, which enables them to miti - gate potential negative effects of concentration on market conditions. Concentrations in 2024/2025 In 2024, the Commission for Protection of Com - petition received 227 merger notifications, of which 205 were submitted in abbreviated form in accordance with the Regulation on the Con - tent and Manner of Submitting the Notification on Concentration, accounting for 90% of the total number of merger notifications. Compared to this figure, 56 cases were carried over from 2023. The Commission has initiated two ex officio proceedings in the case of concentration that were carried out without the Commission’s prior approval. Out of the total number of submitted notifica - tions, 148 (65%) were filed by foreign legal and natural persons, while the remaining 79 (35%) were submitted by domestic legal and natural persons registered and operating in the territory of the Republic of Serbia.
Concerning the economic sectors to which the reported mergers pertain and based on the defined relevant market, the energy and mining sector stands out with a total of 28 notifications, followed by the real estate sector with 18 notifi - cations, the food industry with 17 notifications, banking and finance with 16 notifications, the pharmaceutical sector with 15 notifications, the automotive industry with 13 notifications, and the construction industry and construction materials with 11 notifications. Additionally, a significant number of notifications were submitted in areas such as agriculture, telecommunications, the chemical industry, the paper industry, waste management, footwear and clothing retail, the IT sector, business logis - tics, and others. The majority of issued approvals, of the total number of issued approvals for mergers in the abbreviated procedure, relate to cases involv - ing the acquisition of control over another mar - ket participant or part thereof (74.9%). In joint investments by two or more market participants or the acquisition of joint control over another participant, 50 approvals were issued (23.2%). The high number of reported concentrations is largely due to the exceptionally low notification thresholds for merger control set by Serbian law, which are significantly lower than those estab - lished under relevant EU regulations. Namely, the merger notification thresholds were estab - lished back in 2009 and have not been revised to this day. As a result, many transactions unlikely to have any meaningful impact on competition in the Serbian market are still subject to regula - tory review. This not only places an unnecessary administrative burden on businesses but also functions, in effect, as a cost or barrier to doing business. In practice, these low thresholds often
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