This change is due to the amendments made to the Law of Georgia on Competition, which will come into force on the 1 of January. The amendments aim to strengthen the effective enforcement of competition policy, clarify technical details and terms, and the name of the Agency is changed. The Georgian Parliament approved these amendments following a proposal from the Sector Economy and Economic Policy Committee.
The name of the Agency has been changed to "Georgian Competition and Consumer Agency" due to the increase in its mandate and functions with the enforcement of the Law of Georgia on the Protection of Consumer Rights.
As per the adopted changes:
• If an authorized person of the Agency in the process of onsite inspection procedure is not allowed and is interfered during an Agency inspection, the undertaking will be fined. The fine for such an offense is 10,000 GEL for the first time, and 20,000 GEL for recurrence of this violation.
• Relevant representatives of various law enforcement or expert bodies can participate in the on-site inspection process if necessary.
• The "annual turnover" concept has been replaced by "gross income" in the law. This change corresponds to the definition in the Tax Code of Georgia.
• According to the adopted changes, the time limit for withdraw the complaint is now limited. It will only be possible before the party makes a decision on the project.
• In accordance with the legislation, the Agency must been notified of a concentration complete in writing in advance. The notification should include the individual and total gross income of the participating undertaking/undertakings in the territory of Georgia, as of the previous financial year of the obligation to submit the notification, exceeds the threshold amount established by the rules of submitting and reviewing concentration notifications.
• The 5-day working period for responding to the notification on concentration has been increased to 10 working days. An individual who has the obligation to notify concentration and violates this obligation will be fined up to 10,000 GEL.
• With the changes implemented in the law of Georgia on Competition now guarantees the identity of the person/persons participating in the leniency program and the confidentiality of the data provided by them.
The amendments were developed based on recommendations from the EU-funded TWINNING project and the Agency's practices.
