The Competition Authority collected 15.5 million ALL from fines to businesses

2024-04-11 10:52:00, Ekonomi CNA

The Competition Authority collected 15.5 million ALL from fines imposed on businesses last year.

According to the information, in the annual report of this institution, the income from imposed fines decreased by 41% compared to the previous year.

According to the Competition Authority, during 2023, seven decisions of this institution were fully or partially executed. Specifically, the decision dated 19.11.2020 has been fully executed, with the debtor company "Fufarma SHA"; the decision dated 09.11.2022 has been fully executed, with the debtor company "Star Parking LLC; the decision dated 23.07.2022 has been fully executed, with the debtor company "Agro Blend LLC"; the decision dated 08.06.2023 has been fully executed, with the debtor company "Gega Oil Group SHA; the remaining part of the decision was executed, dated 18.12.2007, with the debtor company "Kirchberger Albania SHPK"; the decision dated 22.11.2018 has been partially executed, with the debtor company "EKMA Albania SHPK"; was partially executed on 22.01.2021, with the debtor company "New Medical Plus LLC".

The Competition Authority is awaiting enforcement actions for seven execution orders and awaiting the issuance of the execution order by the Court for 4 decisions of the Competition Commission, with 12 debtors in total.

During the year 2023, the Competition Authority took three decisions to sanction with a fine, namely against the companies Gega Oil, AIR BP Albania and against the group of companies AGNA, Info-Telecom and Tirana International Development.

In all cases, the reason for the fines is the non-notification within the deadline of the concentrations carried out by these companies, while in the case of AIR BP Albania also the filing of incomplete and incorrect data, related to the concentration procedure.

Decisions of the Competition Authority are executive titles, however the sanctioned entity has in any case the right to address the court to contest the decision on the merits or to request a suspension of its execution. Many delays in the execution of decisions are related precisely to the prolongation of judicial processes. The long delay or even non-execution of decisions in practice negatively affects the efficiency of the work of the Competition Authority, as a guarantor of the functioning of fair competition in the markets. As can be seen from the list of decisions executed during the past year, among them there are decisions that were taken as early as 2007.

Only in the last two years, 2022-2023, the Competition Authority has managed to execute decisions on sanctions with fines against entities, since for three consecutive years, in the period 2019-2021, it had not managed to collect any fines.

For the year 2023, the Competition Authority provided total income in the amount of 46.3 million ALL. 66% of them came from merger review fees, while the rest from fines collected during the year. The Competition Authority's income decreased by 12% compared to last year, where the main effect was the decrease in income from fines.

The income covered about 47% of the total actual expenses of the institution, while a year ago this income covered 73% of them./Monitor