“In the law of the Competition Council, a 40% market presence threshold is stipulated, and any acquisition that exceeds this percentage requires an in-depth analysis. As we have seen in recent acquisitions where we introduced commitments, there were lengthy discussions about how to ensure the continuity of the activities of the companies that merge or acquire others over the next 5–10 years,” said Laszlo Gyerko, Competition Councilor and Board Member of the Competition Council, during the Future of Retail & FMCG Forum organized by The Diplomat-Bucharest.

Key statements:

• “Of course, we prefer competition to be as strong as possible. If there are only two or three companies, then greater attention is required. I do not believe companies intentionally seek to create dominance or to reach agreements on prices. As you know very well, our primary objective is not to fine companies. Our main goal is to oversee the market and ensure a balance between supply and demand. That is, in fact, the foundation of our activity.
• The fact that we also end up imposing fines is the ‘darker’ side of our work.
• I believe our departments are quite specialized in different areas, especially services and consumer goods. They monitor the market and operate the Price Monitor application, where we can observe certain behaviors. We are pleased that companies agreed to be part of this project so that together we can ensure transparency in prices and pricing strategies for certain products nationwide.
• I believe that large acquisitions will continue to take place. What matters is how we approach them — whether we can find cooperation and a future strategy that does not harm competition at the national level.
• There must be a climate of trust between partners. We talk with producers’ associations, business associations, and chambers of commerce to understand the real issues and the day-to-day challenges producers face.
• I think it would be useful to implement a pilot program for certain products that are not highly price-sensitive, to see how it works and to allow the market to see how such data sharing functions. Then we could move forward.
• We trust that companies understand what effective collaboration based on trust means.”