Competition Council can prevent Agrokor's complete dominance

The Competition Council of BiH confirmed for the news agency Patria that on June 28, 2013, it received the Application for Concentration of the economic entity "Agrokor" Zagreb, Republic of Croatia with the intention of acquiring control by purchasing the majority of shares of the economic entity Poslovni sistem "Mercator" Ljubljana, Slovenia.

As the news agency Patria has already reported, if the Croatian company "Agrokor", owned by Croatian millionaire Ivica Todorić, completes the takeover of the Slovenian "Mercator", the principle of free market will be violated in the BiH market.

The Competition Council of BiH has issued a confirmation of receipt of complete documentation, and a Conclusion on initiating proceedings has been adopted. It is important to emphasize that, according to the Law on Competition, the Competition Council can either prohibit the concentration or conditionally approve it with the implementation of appropriate structural or other measures if the market shares of the concentration participants on the relevant market have exceeded 40 percent.

As we have been informed, the proceedings are still ongoing, but the Council will thoroughly analyze the wholesale and retail market of food products and consumer goods in BiH, and will also seek data on total revenues generated in the mentioned markets from relevant competitors in the BiH market.