The Competition Authority is a public independent authority established under Law on Competition Protection (9121/2003).
Its remit covers:

• protection of market competition;
• assessment of restrictive agreements and mergers; and
• assessment of abuse of a dominant position.

It fulfils this through the Competition Secretariat (investigative body) and the Competition Commission (decision-making body).
The law aims to harmonize the national legislative framework with EU law, and from the moment the law was enacted particular attention was given to the role of the Competition Authority in the implementation process.
So far, the authority's activities have consisted of examining several mergers, investigating one case of abuse of a dominant position and one of restrictive agreement in the insurance sector. It has lately pursued investigations into agreements whose object or effect was to prevent, distort or restrict market competition. In two recent decisions,(1) the Competition Commission decided to prohibit agreements on the grounds that the object of those agreements was to fix sale prices and other trade conditions by distorting market competition. In both cases the Competition Authority investigated horizontal agreements under the provisions of Article 4.1(a) of Law 9121/2003.
Article 4 of Law 9121/2003 prohibits agreements whose object or effect is to prevent, restrict or distort competition. Such agreements are defined as:

• agreements of any kind between undertakings, with or without compelling force;
• decisions or recommendations of undertakings' associates, or concerted practices between those operating at the same level; and
• horizontal agreements or vertical agreements in the market.

agreement, by listing as such those that:

• directly or indirectly fix purchase or sale prices, or any other trading conditions;
• limit or control production, markets, technical development or investment;
• share markets or supply sources;
• apply dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other commercial parties, thereby placing those parties at a competitive disadvantage; and
• restrict the conclusion or acceptance of contracts by other parties through supplementary obligations which, by their nature or commercial use, have no connection with the scope of such contracts.

Restrictive agreements which do not meet the exemption criteria are invalid.
Exemptions from the prohibition of restrictive horizontal, vertical and licence agreements (ie, licence and assignment of industrial property rights) may be granted by the Competition Authority upon notification by the interested parties.
According to Law 9121/2003, horizontal and vertical agreements are exempted only on the Competition Commission's decision. Law 9121/2003 allows for the exemption of such agreements on the basis of their economic efficiency,(2) without providing, however, for the de minimis rule.
Exemption of a licence agreement is effective only if the Competition Authority decides not to challenge it within three months of receipt of the notification.
Apart from prohibiting the agreement, the authority may decide to impose on the participating undertakings: (i) fines of between 2% and 10% of the total turnover of the preceding financial year; or (ii) periodic daily fines of no more than 5% of the average daily turnover of the preceding financial year.

For further information please contact Jonida Skendaj at Boga & Associates by telephone (+355 4 251 050) or by fax (+355 4 251 055) or by email (jonida@bogalaw.com).

Endnotes
(1) Dated September 24 2007 and October 1 2007.

(2) The conditions for horizontal agreement exemptions are similar to those provided in Article 81.3 of the EC Treaty; with regard to vertical agreements, the exemption provision closely follows Article 4(b) of EU Regulation 790/99 on the application of Article 81.3 to vertical agreements and concerted practices.

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