The National Competition Agency reported to the Parliament about its activity for 2021.
The report was introduced by the Chair of the NCA, Irakli Lekvinadze. According to him, 2021 was a special year since some new functions have been assigned to the Agency and a new Law on Competition has become effective enhancing the competition enforcement policy.
“In 2021, we launched the anti-damping policy but despite high expectations, none of the applications have been made by the local companies yet. We are aspired to keep active communication with the local industry to allow them immediately appeal to us upon the detection of a problem”, - he stated.
He overviewed the monitoring of the market during the accounting period informing MPs that in 2021, the monitoring of the pharmacy market has ended, which has been numerously discussed in the Parliament.
“Through our monitoring reports, we answered most of the questions of society. Based on the monitoring, 13 recommendations have been issued that shall provide our citizens with more options at lower costs. The second important monitoring was held on the fuel market. The market was competitive and allowed a wide variety of brand and non-brand fuels, though, at the beginning of 2022, the situation has been changed and thus, in summer, we made a decision to close the monitoring and start an inquiry”.
The reporter touched upon the second direction of their activity – inquiry. “In 2021, we closed 5 cases – one concerning the agreed action and the proceedings have been held towards 7 companies, which resulted in the issue of the respective penalties. The second case was concerning the possible restriction of competition by the state, though the facts have not been confirmed. Three cases were held on mala fide competition, where 2 facts have been confirmed. Within the same period and under the updated laws, we have verified up to 22 000 concentrations in Georgia and issued consent on the merging of the companies in 3 sectors”.
He dwelt on the statistical data for 2014-2021, affirmed his commitment to participating in considerations and answered the questions.
