January 19 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by Croatia's indebted food-to-retail concern Agrokor against the payment of a 1 million euro ($1.2 million) fine to the Slovenian competition authority AVK, the regulator said.
The supreme court rejected the appeal as unfounded and upheld the June decision of Ljubljana District Court to impose a 1 million euro fine on Agrokor, whose assets are now owned by Fortenova Group, for its failure to notify the competition authority about its 2016 acquisition of UAE-based Ardeya Global - owner of Slovenian water bottling company Costella, AVK said in a statement on Monday.
In June, Ljubljana District Court reduced the 53.9 million euro fine initially imposed by AVK on Agrokor to 1 million euro, stating that should Agrokor agree to pay the reduced fine, it will regain the rights to its holdings in Slovenian retailer Mercator.
AVK decided to temporarily seize Agrokor's holdings in Mercator in December 2019 to ensure the enforcement of the penalty. In July 2020, Slovenia's Supreme Court ruled that AVK has to return to Agrokor its holdings in Mercator without delay, stating that AVK had no legal grounds to issue a ruling to seize the shares.
The business operations of Agrokor were transferred to the newly formed Fortenova Group in April 2019 under a debt settlement agreement with Agrokor's creditors endorsed by a Zagreb court in June 2018.
($ = 0.824661 euro)