Main Principles of the Competition Authority

The Competition Authority is a public institution that interacts energetically with the protection of competition in Albania to serve the public interest.
The Competition Authority relies on three main pillars that are:

Prohibited agreements (cartels);
Abuse of dominant position;
Mergers or acquisitions of enterprises;

In addition to these three main pillars, CA relies on the protection of consumer interest as well as on the evaluation of normative acts that violate fair competition. The Law “On Protection of Competition” serves as a kind of mechanism that gives every individual the right to defend his or her interest to address the Administrative Court of Tirana through a lawsuit or to appeal to the CA.25 In the Law “On Protection” of Competition ”in Part II that correspond to Articles 4-7 seems clear to have the definitions of prohibited agreements with that of Article 101 of the Lisbon Treaty.

Our Competition Authority legislation prohibits all agreements that have the effect of preventing, restricting, distorting competition in the market. Also in provision 4 of the Law are specified those agreements that:

a) fix, directly or indirectly, the purchase or sale prices, or any other terms of trade;
b) restrict or control production, markets, technical development or investment;
c) share markets or sources of supply;
c/1) in commercial relations with other parties, apply different conditions for the same transactions, placing them in an unfavorable state of competition;
d) conclude contracts conditional upon the acceptance by other contracting parties of additional obligations which, by their nature or by their commercial use, are not related to the object of those contracts.

As in Article 101 of the Treaty of Lisbon, in our law, Article 5 makes some exceptions when such agreements are excluded from the application of Article 4 providing for extenuating or exempting circumstances. Article 5 of the Law on Protection of Competition explains that “any agreement which contributes to the improvement of the production or distribution of products or to the promotion of technological or economic progress if a sufficient proportion of these benefits goes to the benefit of customers and when:

Does not contain restrictions on the activities of the participating undertakings, which are not necessary to achieve the above mentioned objectives;
It does not significantly limit the competition for products or services subject to these agreements. “
Also, Article 6 of Albanian law states that “The Commission shall adopt regulations on the categories of agreements which are exempt from the prohibition provided for in Article 4 the prohibition provided for in paragraph 1 of Article 4.”
Whereas Article 7 thereof provides for those exceptions to minor agreements. Article 7 provides as follows: “Those agreements which do not significantly restrict competition in the market, if the market share of all undertakings jointly participating in this agreement, may be excluded from the application of paragraph 1 of Article 4. does not exceed:
10 per cent of the relevant market, where participants are current or potential competitors;
15 per cent of the relevant market, where participants are not current or potential competitors.”
Consequently, Albanian law has therefore used the same strategy and policy as that of the European Union. As to those agreements of provision 5,6,7, these are such that they should not a prejudice-free competition and should be open agreements, provided for in Articles 49 and 50 of the Law on Protection of Competition.
Below, Chapter II of the Law includes Articles 8-9 that provide for abuse of a dominant position by an enterprise in the market. Article 8 focuses on assessing the dominant position in the market taking into account: The dominant position of one or more undertakings shall be assessed, taking into account in particular: “
the relevant market share of the undertaking or undertakings in question and of other competitors;
barriers to entry in the relevant market;

c) potential competition;
c/1) the economic and financial power of the enterprises;
d) economic dependence of suppliers and buyers;
dh) the countervailing power of buyers;
e) the development of the enterprise distribution network and the opportunities to use the product resources;
h) economic links with other enterprises;

(f) other relevant market characteristics such as product homogeneity, market transparency, cost and size enterprise uniformity, demand stability or free production capacity. “
This provision is also consistent with Article 102 of the Lisbon Treaty. In addition, Article 9 of the Law “On Protection of Competition” is the same as Article 102 of the TL. Article 9 defines as abuse the dominant position by one or more undertakings that hold this position in the market, in cases when:
a) the imposition, directly or indirectly, of unfair purchase or selling prices or other unfair trading conditions;
b) the restriction of production, markets or technical development;
c) the application of unequal conditions of trade for the same purposes as the parties, placing them at a disadvantage in competition;
d) establishing the conditions for concluding contracts with other parties so that the latter may assume additional obligations which, by their very nature or by commercial practices, are not related to the object of the contracts in question. “

Regarding the legal basis of the third pillar of CA, which deals with the control of concentrations or mergers between undertakings, are provided in law no. 9121 “On the protection of competition”, in a Regulation “On the application of enterprise concentration procedures” and an Instruction “On the form of concentration notification and the possibility of simplified notification”. The Competition Commission has the exclusive competence to control concentrations.

This is determined on the basis of the annual turnover of participating enterprises, which should be over ALL 70 billion at the international level and ALL 800 million at the national level. Concentrations at the national level must be notified to the Competition Authority in order to obtain the relevant authorization from the Competition Commission prior to their realization. Whereas more detailed information on the manner of notification and the relevant form is set out in the “Regulation on the implementation of enterprise concentration procedures” .

On the other hand, the judicial practice in Albania has increased significantly compared to previous years. This has also improved the procedure followed in the context of covert agreements which includes:

The investigation by certain working groups and investigative report;