In connection with some statements published in the public environment and requests for information received from the Competition Council regarding the increase in the price of vegetable oil, the Council communicates the following:


Currently, within the Competition Council, a useful investigation is underway to know the market of marketing and processing of cereal and oilseed crops. That investigation shall be continuous and relevant information on the functioning of the markets investigated shall be regularly updated.


As part of this investigation, significant increases in retail prices for sunflower oil were found in early May 2022. In order to elucidate the aspects related to these increases, the Competition Council requested the relevant documents and information from the sunflower oil producer.


If signs of competition law infringement are established, the Competition Council will initiate the respective investigation.


At the same time, we would like to point out that holding a dominant position on the market is not incriminated in itself by competition law no. No 183/2012. For the purposes of the Competition Law, it is punishable not to hold a dominant position, but to abuse such a position. Respectively, if the actions provided for in article 11 of the Competition Law are found (e.g., the practice of excessive prices by the undertaking occupying the dominant position on the market), the Competition Council will be able to proceed with regard to sanctioning possible infringements.


At the same time, we ask the persons who have any information about possible violations of the competition law, to submit them to the Competition Council in order to streamline the process of collecting the relevant data.