Annual report 2011

Today the Icelandic Competition Authority (ICA) published its annual report for the year 2011 under the heading: Renaissance of the Economy. This report covers the ICA's activities in 2010 and the ICA's subjects and emphases for 2011. This report addresses, for example, the following cases:

• Commercial banks' takeover of certain companies is subject to conditions
  The ICA explains its stance on the ownership of commercial banks by business enterprises and the conditions it imposes on such ownership, with the aim of mitigating the harmful effects of competition (page 6).
• The reconstruction of companies needs to be accelerated – progress is too slow.
  ICA explains its sentiment towards accelerating the reconstruction of business and several of ICA's projects concerning this reconstruction are addressed (page 8).
• ICA warns about condensation in the financial market and ICA imposed collaboration of banks
  The ICA's general exemption is addressed to condensation in the financial market. A summary of the exemption issued by the ICA is included in this report (page 9).
• Investigation of the competition law violations leads to changes in the groceries market.
  Companies in the groceries market had to change their procedures due to a decision made by the ICA regarding a competition violation by Hagar, a distribution company in the groceries market and owner of three of the largest grocery stores in Iceland, and six meat processing companies (page 10).
• Busy year in competition surveillance – almost 1 billion Icelandic krona in fines (approx. 6.27M €)
  This report covers all the major raids, fines and other interventions from the year 2010. A brief write-up of all the decisions made by the ICA is listed in the report. Also all rules from the appeal committee and all judgements from both the district and Supreme Court.
• ICA focus on the year 2011 – Necessary to boost the speed of economic renaissance (page 17)

Rögnvaldur J. Sæmundsson, chairman of the board:
„Experience has shown that competition accelerates necessary reconstruction and speeds up economic recovery. Actions that stall competition prevent urgent innovation and, in the end, have a negative impact on the interests of consumers.”

Páll Gunnar Pálsson, Director:
„The Icelandic Competition Authority has endeavoured to use its resources to accelerate economic recovery. For example, the ICA has imposed conditions on commercial banks' takeovers of active companies to reduce the risk of competition imbalance by the banks.

…

ICA has been firm in its observations and is alert to any competition breach directed at new and smaller companies that are trying to gain a foothold and grow alongside larger competitors. If barriers of that kind are not prevented, consumers are particularly likely to fall victim to retrenchment competition.„

Annual report 2011 in Icelandic – PDF file – Opens in a new window