Effective 1 January 2024, the Czech Energy Act (No. 458/2000 Coll.; "EA") mandates notification to the Ministry of Industry and Trade for both direct and indirect acquisitions of elements of energy critical infrastructure. The parties will be under a standstill obligation until the transaction is cleared. Notably, the triggering event is set to 10 % of shares or voting rights or even lower. Let's take a closer look at the new transaction review feature.

By its decision dated 29 December 2023, the Serbian Competition Commission determined that the companies KTG Solucije and Eco Sense from the town of Subotica (in Serbia) entered into a restrictive agreement by colluding in public procurement procedures (i.e., bid rigging).

Poland's Weronika Kapica and Daria Rutecka, Romania's Adina Damaschin and Mara Moga-Paler, Serbia's Zoran Soljaga, Slovakia's Michal Lucivjansky, and Slovenia's Peter Gorse have all been appointed to Partner positions with Schoenherr.

On 28 December 2023, the Agency for the Protection of Competition of Montenegro (the “Agency”) adopted a decision regarding its finding that the pricelist adopted by the Association of Tourist Agencies of Montenegro (the “Association”) concerning services provided by the tourist agencies amounts to a restrictive agreement by object under the Montenegrin Competition Law.

The Czech Competition Authority (CCA) recently announced that it prepared a proposal to update the Czech Competition Act (the "Act"). While at present the proposal is just a set of ideas, it indicates how Czech competition enforcement may evolve in the years to come. Crucially, the CCA suggests deploying a "new competition tool" that will allow it to intervene even without proof of anticompetitive agreements or abuse of dominance. In addition, it wants to have call-in powers for under-threshold mergers.

A new Regulation on Active Cooperation for Detecting Cartels (“Regulation”) in Turkey entered into force on 16 December 2023. The Turkish Competition Authority (“TCA”) also held a helpful webinar on the topic, highlighting the differences between the old and new regulation. In this article, we highlight two changes that we consider to be the most important: (i) applicants are now required to submit documents that contribute added value; and (ii) applications from cartel facilitators are now explicitly welcomed. Lastly, we present an overview of the conditions for full immunity and for reductions in administrative monetary fines.