The Georgian Competition and Consumer Agency has launched an investigation into the establishment of exclusive conditions in the e-commerce market.
The case concerns an alleged infringement of Article 7 of the Law of Georgian on Competition (Restrictive agreements). In particular, discounts were exclusively offered to "Mastercard" cardholders when selling specific products on the "Tineti"’s web-portal - - www.swoop.ge.
Accordingly, the Agency started investigating the alleged violation against the branch of the foreign enterprise "Mastercard Representation of Georgia" and LLC "Tineti".
The information regarding the alleged violation was provided to the Agency by the company "Reshenal Solutions" (www.hotsale.ge). Later, the company withdrew its complaint, however, based on the factual circumstances described in it and the attached evidence, reasonable doubt arose regarding the fact of the alleged violation. Accordingly, the agency, on its own initiative, started to investigate the case.
For information: In 2023, the Agency conducted 8 investigations, where concerted practice was established in 3 cases. In 2 cases restriction of competition by the state authorities, in 1 case, the fact of unfair competition. In 1 case, the abuse of a dominant position was not confirmed, and in 1 case, the investigation was terminated based on the complainant’s application. At present, four investigations are ongoing.
