The Serbian Commission for Protection of Competition (the “Commission”) announced that on August 29, 2016, it had initiated an investigation procedure against Inter Turs Plus (“ITP”), a transportation company from Arandjelovac, in order to determine the assumed abuse of its dominant position.
In the previous period, as a consequence of the ongoing work of the Ministry for Construction, Transport and Infrastructure on the amendments of the Public Utility Services Act (the “Act”), the Commission has focused its activities on the area of public utility services. According to Article 3(5) of the Act, transportation services fall under the scope of public utility services, thus giving the special attention of the Commission to the situation involving ITP.
The existence of the competition infringement has been assumed by the Commission on the basis of the collected information, including numerous documents and other data. The aim of the infringement is or could have been a significant restriction, violation, or prevention of competition.
Consequently, the Commission will investigate whether ITP, as the sole operator of the bus station in Topola, abused its dominant position by increasing the price of the services offered by the station, such as the bus reception and departure. Namely, unfairly high prices of the bus station platform services, which lead to exploitation of consumers of this particular service, could represent a violation of Article 16 of the Competition Protection Act.
By Nikola Kasagic, Senior Associate, SOG / Samardzic, Oreski & Grbovic
