January 24 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's competition authority said it has found four local waste management companies guilty of entering into a cartel agreement against a local competitor.
The Competition Protection Agency has found that the four companies - - Surovina, Dinos, Salomon and Recikel, have agreed to eliminate their local peer Interseroh from the waste packaging management systems market in Slovenia, and to divide its market share amongst them, the anti-trust body said in a statement on Thursday.
"The affected competitor demands these services to a great extent from the undertakings Salomon, Surovina and Dinos. The aim of the said cartel agreement was mainly to disable the affected competitor to provide the services of organizing packaging waste management systems due to a significant increase in its costs," the competition authority said.
Consequently, its customers on the market for organization of packaging waste management systems in Slovenia would therefore switch to other companies providing the same services, in particular to Recikel, Surovina and Dinos. The parties to the procedure also agreed that Recikel, Surovina and Dinos would share the customers of the affected competitor in the market for organization of packaging waste management systems amongst them.
"All of the above constitutes a prohibited agreement, which has as its object the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition in Slovenia and in a significant part of the EU internal market, which could affect the trade between Member States," the competition authority said.
The findings of the agency in the procedure can be appealed before Slovenia's Administrative Court.
"The fines will be set in a separate minor offence procedure," the competition authority said.
Interseroh is part of Berlin-based recycling and environmental services provider ALBA Group.