Most of the amendments to the Law on Competition will come into force on November 4
• A unified legal framework has been created for the separation of competencies between the Georgian National Competition Agency and regulatory bodies. Accordingly, the authorities will act unitedly on the basic issues of the Competition.
Regulators remain committed to enforcing competition in their sectors and will investigate the issues that only concern regulated entities. In all other cases, the competent authority is the Competition Agency.
• Sanctions were imposed on unfair competition (Article 11 of the Law on Competition) - a fine up to 1% of turnover.
• In the process of investigating the case, reviewing and monitoring the concentration notification, undertakings must provide the Agency with the requested information.
• In case of violation of the rule, the undertaking will be fined - a natural person 1000 GEL and a juristic person 3 000 GEL
• In case of an on-site inspection of undertakings, the court will not inform them in advance.
- The approach is proven in almost every EU country, and an on-site inspection is the mainstay of a cartel investigation.
• A two-phase concentration control system has established. The agency evaluates within 25 calendar days - whether the concentration is compatible with a competitive environment or not. In case of further study of the issue - the duration is 90 calendar days.
• On the case of the concentration made without the permission of the Agency, or made before the notification is reviewed or after the negative conclusion was issued by the Agency- a fine up to 5% shall be imposed.
A fee for reviewing the concentration notice was set GEL 5,000.
• For the fundamental study of the abuse of a dominant position and anti-competitive agreements on the market, the maximum investigation period has set at 18 months instead of 10 months.
• The Agency is authorized to make a binding recommendation to the economic agent for consideration, which is an effective measure and serves to prevent violations.
• The issuer of an insignificant amount of individual state aid is obliged to provide information to the Agency annually by February 1 of the year following the reporting year.
• The name of the agency has been changed and it is called - Georgian National Competition Agency.
