Global Competition Law is primarly a practitioner's guide presenting the most salient aspects of the major competition laws country by country, giving an overview of their structure and most charasteristic elements.
Global Competition Law also provides insight into possible future developments in the field.

Global Competition Law

Article 6(3) of the Act explicitly permits certain agreements falling in the scope of Article 6(1) where they contribute to improving production or distribution of goods or to promoting technical and economic progress, while allowing consumers a fair share of the resulting benefit, and without imposing restrictions that are not indispensable to the attainment of these objectives or that afford und …

Exemptions

Pursuant to Article 6(1) of the Act, agreements that restrict competition are in principle prohibited, and are null and void. Restrictive agreements are defined as agreements between undertakings regarding business conditions in the market that have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition in the territory of Slovenia. The prohibition encompasses both vertical and horizontal agreements and applies to decisions by associations of undertakings and concerted practices.

Article 6(2) sets out a non-exhaustive list of prohibited practices, including agreements that:

- directly or indirectly fix purchase or selling prices;

- apply dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions;

- make the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance of supplementary conditions;

- share markets or other sources of supply.

The Act recognizes that certain agreements only have a negligible effect on competition because of the limited market share of the participants, and thus do not come within the prohibition (Article 7(1)). Such agreements, referred to as agreements of minor importance, are defined in Article 7(2) as: “agreements between the undertakings whose aggregate market share, in combination with other undertakings in the group, on any of the relevant markets on the territory of the Republic of Slovenia to which the agreement pertains, does not exceed: 10% in the case of undertakings operating at the same level of production or trade ("horizontal agreements"), 15% in the case of undertakings operating at different levels of production or trade ("vertical agreements"), 10% in the case of mixed horizontal-vertical agreements or where it is difficult to determine whether an agreement is horizontal or vertical.” Where there are cumulative effects, the market share thresholds are decreased by 5%.

However, the exception granted to such agreements does not apply where competition in respect of the relevant product is restricted due to market circumstances, or where the undertakings enter into one of the agreements listed in Article 7(4), namely:

- horizontal agreements that have as their object to fix prices, restrict production or sales or share markets or sources of supply;

- vertical agreements that seek to fix retail prices or grant territorial protection to the participating undertakings or to third parties.

Any violation of Article 6 of the Act or Article 101 of the TFEU constitutes a minor offense pursuant to the Competition Act. In addition, Article 225 of the Criminal Code qualify some violations as criminal offenses: “Whoever, in pursuing an economic activity contrary to regulations governing the protection of competition, violates the prohibition of restricting agreements between companies, abuses the dominant position of one or more companies, or creates a forbidden concentration of companies and thus prevents or significantly impedes or distorts competition in the Republic of Slovenia, or on the European Union market, or a significant part of it, or significantly influences trade between Member States, which results in a large property benefit for such a company or companies, or significant damage for another company shall be sentenced to imprisonment for not less than six months and not more than five years.”

The prohibition

Article 6(3) of the Act explicitly permits certain agreements falling in the scope of Article 6(1) where they contribute to improving production or distribution of goods or to promoting technical and economic progress, while allowing consumers a fair share of the resulting benefit, and without imposing restrictions that are not indispensable to the attainment of these objectives or that afford undertakings the possibility of eliminating competition in respect of a substantial part of the products in question.

The possibility of block exemption is provided for in Article 8 of the Act. Provisions of EU Block Exemptions apply mutatis mutandis, even in the absence of an effect on trade between Member States. Previous national decrees on block exemptions have been repealed by the Act (Article 79). However, Article 8(2) empowers the Government to establish by decree block exemptions for other categories of agreements. Agreements must meet the conditions of Article 6(3) of the Act. Under Article 8(3), the CPA can withdraw the benefit of a block exemption if it finds that the agreement is incompatible with Article 6(3).

Global Competition Law

657. Exemptions

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Les notions juridiques connexes

657. Exemptions

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Les notions juridiques connexes

Demandez un accès gratuit
au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise