On 28 December 2021, the Slovenian Competition Protection Agency (hereinafter: the Agency), issued an administrative decision finding that the undertakings RENAULT NISSAN SLOVENIJA, d.o.o. (now: GA ADRIATIC d.o.o.), AVTOHIŠA REAL d.o.o., AVTOHIŠA MALGAJ d.o.o., PLEŠKO CARS d.o.o. and Avtoservis KALAN d.o.o. infringed Article 6 of the Prevention of the Restriction of Competition Act (hereinafter: ZPOmK-1) and Article 101 of the TFEU (more on this: link). All parties to the proceedings, except for the party who submitted a leniency statement, brought an action before the Administrative Court of the Republic of Slovenia against the Agency's administrative decision.
The new law, ZPOmK-2, which entered into force in January 2023, introduced certain novelties, including the possibility to reduce an administrative sanction based on a settlement application, according to which the Agency may reduce an undertaking's administrative sanction by a maximum of 20 % under the conditions set out in Article 95 of ZPOmK-2. The Agency encourages undertakings to submit settlement applications as well and leniency statements, which offer certain benefits to the applicants and contribute to the faster conclusion of proceedings, and has therefore, introduced the aforementioned possibility to all parties to the proceedings.
As all the parties to the proceedings expressed interest in the settlement, the Agency entered into discussions with them on the terms of the admission of liability in the settlement submission. During the proceedings, all undertakings cooperated actively and exemplarily with the Agency in the full clarification of the facts and circumstances, admitted the infringement alleged against them and withdrew their actions before the Administrative Court against the Agency's decision issued in 2021. They have thus fulfilled all their obligations under the abovementioned Article 95 of ZPOmK-2. The Agency therefore accepted their settlement submission and, taking into account all the circumstances, reduced the amount of the administrative sanction that it would have imposed on them by up to 20 %, while on party received full immunity for revealing the cartel.
The Agency thus imposed administrative sanctions on undertakings totalling more than €1 million.
With the withdrawal of all actions before the Administrative Court against the Agency’s decision issued in 2021, the proceedings in which the Agency found an infringement of Article 6 of ZPOmK-1 and Article 101 TFEU in the automotive sector have been definitively concluded.