Reduction of the reference rate from 5.46% to 3.79%

The Council of the Competition Protection Agency (AZTN) has made a decision to reduce the basic reference rate from 5.46% to 3.79%, and the temporary basic reference rate from 4.3% to 2.95%, it was announced today by the Agency.

These rates will apply from June 1, as the rates change during the year if the average interest rate on treasury bills in the last three months and the difference in reference rates in the eurozone deviate by more than 15% from the last established average, the Agency explains. In accordance with the temporary rules on state aid that enable Croatian entrepreneurs easier access to capital during the economic crisis, the temporary basic reference rate has been determined by reducing the basic reference rate by 22%.

The difference between the reference rate and the temporary reference rate represents state aid, it is emphasized in the statement from the 42nd session of the Council. At that session, the Council also determined that the retail chain Konzum, by terminating the lease agreement for Self-Service Vodice, has fully implemented all structural measures that the Agency ordered by the decision on the conditionally permitted concentration Konzum/Lokica from December 2008.

The aim of the structural measures was to reduce Konzum’s market share in the areas of Šibenik, Vodice, and Murter. However, its behavior in the market will continue to be monitored in terms of fulfilling the obligation to maintain the contracts that Lokica, or Jolly-JBS, entered into with their suppliers before the implementation of the concentration.

In executing this measure, Konzum is obliged to submit reports from an independent auditor to the Agency, and the last such report must be submitted in April 2011, according to the AZTN statement. The Agency also reported that the Council has made a decision on the permissibility of concentration in electronic media, whereby Multicomb d.o.o. from Ivanec takes control over the radio publisher Radio Ivanec.

The Agency’s decision is based solely on the regulations on the protection of market competition and was made from the perspective of the effect of the concentration on market competition. Namely, with the entry into force of the new Electronic Media Act in December 2009, the Agency for Electronic Media is responsible for the protection of pluralism and diversity of electronic media, so the decision on the permissibility of this concentration will also be submitted to that regulator, the statement from the Competition Protection Agency concludes.  (H)