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Competence of the Office

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The Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic is the independent central state administration body of the Slovak Republic for the protection of competition and state aid coordination.

The Office intervenes in the cases of cartels, the abuse of a dominant position, vertical agreements, it controls mergers, which meet notification criteria and assesses the conduct of state and local administration authorities if they restrict competition by their conduct. It ensures the protection of competition in the area of state aid as well.

The Office´s competences are enshrined in the Act No. 187/2021 Coll. on Protection of Competition and on the Amendment and Supplement to Certain Acts (hereafter also “the Act on Protection of Competition“, “the Act”, “the Act No. 187/2021 Coll.”).

By the Act No. 187/2021 Coll. the Office transposed the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 December 2018 to empower the competition authorities of Member States to be more effective enforcers and to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market (ECN+ Directive) into Slovak legal system.

Besides Slovak competition law, the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic applies also European competition law. At the same time, within the European Competition Network (ECN) it fulfils tasks resulting from the membership of the SR in the European Union.

Within the competences, pursuant to the Act on Protection of Competition, the Office conducts mainly investigations on a relevant market, in administrative proceedings it decides on the infringements of the Act in the matter of agreements restricting competition, abuses of dominant position and restrictions of competition by state and local administration authorities and it also performs mergers control, as well as it proposes measures to protect and promote competition.

In accordance with the Act No. 358/2015 Coll. on Adjustment of Certain Relations in State Aid and De Minimis Aid and on the Amendment and Supplements to Certain Acts (hereafter also “the Act on State Aid“) the Office as a state aid coordinator fulfils selected tasks during the protection of competition also in the area of state aid.