Imedinews.ge: Irakli Lekvinadze - Amendments to the Legislation will Facilitate the Effective Enforcement of Competition in the Market
Most parts of the amendments to the Law on Competition went into force in November 2020. Among them, the name of the agency was changed and it is called now- the Georgian National Competition Agency. As the chairman of the Competition Agency said in the TV program "Business Imedi", according to the amendments, the main directions in the legislation have been identified. These are concentration issues, which implies becoming obliged to notify the merger of the companies to the Agency. Before, during the merging of the companies, the agency did not have any leverage of influencing this violation. According to the amendments, sanctions are imposed in case of violation of the rule.
According to Irakli Lekvinadze, the next direction concerns the relationship and the principle of competition between the Agency and regulatory bodies. This applies to both energies, water and gas supply, as well as communications and the financial sector, where until now the role of the Agency has been minimized. In case of any type of violation that would be in non-compliance with the competition law, the regulators will act according to uniform principles.
“The amendments have been preparing for three years and the EU project "Strengthening the Competition Agency" was actively involved in this process with the best European experts analyzing the existing legislation. Accordingly, chief amendments, which were identified as shortcomings in the law, have been prepared. These amendments will contribute to the effective enforcement of competition in the market, and help us be much more flexible for supporting businesses` or consumers` violated rights"- said Irakli Lekvinadze, Chairman of the Georgian National Competition Agency.”
Existed law contained several systemic and procedural shortcomings, the work on which lasted for three years. Following the new amendments, competition enforcement policy will become more effective and result-oriented. As for the amendments in the institutional direction of competition policy, the initiating period for starting the work of the Competition Council determined a little later.
In 2020, the National Competition Agency completed five markets monitoring and three investigation processes in 1 of which the fact of abuse of a dominant position and 2 cases of unfair competition have revealed. One consent has been issued for the concentration of companies. At the moment, three cases are being investigated and three markets are being monitored.
