Powerful or small, your company may be exposed to the antitrust regulatory risks or otherwise to the unfair trading terms of cartel or illegal exercise of market power by a dominant market player.
The Serbian Commission for Protection of Competition (the Commission) and the antitrust regulators in the Western Balkan are equipped with investigative powers that enable them to penetrate your companies’ business premises, computers, laptops, smart-phones, intercept business communication and seriously affect day-to-day business operations during investigations.
Cartel investigations may have serious consequences, including heavy financial penalties, criminal sanctions, reputational harm and follow-on damages claims. Companies with substantial market power can face allegations for alleged restrictive practices, as well. In addition, antitrust non-compliant contracts are devoid of legal effects thus exposing the distribution, tech transfer, licensing, franchise agreements, joint ventures, M&As and complex investments to serious risks.
On the other hand, your market penetration may demand protection against exploitative/exclusionary market conducts by powerful undertakings or market players operating illegal cartel agreements aimed at eliminating your company from the market.
Stojković Attorneys have a first-hand experience in structuring antitrust-compliant business transactions and providing legal assistance to both defendants and complainants in antitrust cases. We have been advising clients in IT, transport, telecommunication, energy, steel industry, pharmacy, luxury goods, consumer goods and retail. We can help you get ahead of antitrust risks before they escalate or tackle restrictive practices of your rivals to unlock markets for your businesses.
Our range of legal services include:
- Comprehensive competition and State aid legal consultancy on day-to-day basis;
- Acting for clients in antitrust cartel and abuse of dominance investigations, shielding clients from unfounded liability charges and managing, controlling and minimizing financial liability risk; advising on leniency applications and negotiating antitrust settlements before the Commission; acting for clients during market and sector investigations of the Commission;
- Managing antitrust initiatives and advising SMEs before the Commission to tackle unfair trade terms, cartels or abuse of market power by dominant undertaking;
- Competition-compliance legal diagnostics of ongoing and future commercial deals (joint ventures, research and development, strategic alliances, supply, purchasing, distribution, agency, franchise, IPR and know-how licensing agreements, etc.);
- Acting for clients and substantive defence of transactions before the Commission in antitrust clearance procedures of exclusive distribution contacts, selective distribution, franchise agreements, IPR licensing, joint ventures, specialization agreements, etc.;
- Pre-merger notification and substantive defence of transactions;
- Conducting competition law audits of business organisations and internal antitrust compliance procedures;
- Antitrust training tailored to the needs of your company and industry
