• identifying prohibited agreements between undertakings and directing commitments needed for the elimination of the harmful effects of the anti-competitive behaviour,
• identifying abuse of a dominant position of an undertaking/s and prohibiting any further practices leading to the abuse and directing commitments for the elimination of the harmful effects of the anti-competitive behaviour, and
• ex-ante assessment of compatibility of proposed concentrations between undertakings.

Where the CCA identifies a prohibited agreement between undertakings, abuse of a dominant position of an undertaking/s or finds that a prohibited concentration has been implemented, it directs committments, i.e., imposes on the undertaking/s behavioural and/or structural remedies which are effective and proportionate to the infringement and deem necessary to remedy the infringement. Structural remedies can only be imposed either where there is no equally effective behavioural remedy or where any equally effective behavioural remedy would be more burdensome for the undertaking concerned than the structural remedy. The CCA imposes fines for the committed infringements in line with the Competition Act and the Regulation on the method of setting fines.

Within its competence relating to competition advocacy, the CCA issues expert opinions on the compliance with the Competition Act of draft law proposals and other proposed legal acts, legislation in effect and other competition-related issues.

As of 1 July 2013 when Croatia joined the European Union, the CCA restored its competence for the application of competition law in the banking sector whereas in the area of antitrust (assessment of restrictive agreements and abuse of a dominant position of undertakings) it entered the system of parallel powers with respect to direct application of both the national competition rules and the EU competition rules contained in Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

At the same time, the EU accession involves the obligatory cooperation with other national competition authorities of the EU Member States and the European Commission, particularly the work within the European Competition Network (ECN). Concretely, the ECN obliges its members not only to decision making and cooperation in particular cases, but also to creating a common competition policy and convergence of practices of the national authorities in the application and enforcement of competition law in all its members, whereas the European Commission, in principle, decides in cases of so called significant anticompetitive cross-border or multi-jurisdictional effects, concretely, in cases with so called “EU dimension”, notifiable in three or more EU Member States.

Furthermore, since 17 December 2017, when the Act on the prohibition of unfair trading practices in the business-to-business food supply chain, OG 117/17 (UTPs Act) entered into force, the CCA has been empowered for its implementation and for imposing sanctions in the area concerned. The full application of the UTPs Act started on 1 April 2018. Additional information about the unfair trading practices, the legal framework in force, the investigative powers and the administrative procedure and FAQs about the area concerned can be found here .