Slovenia: Competition update
In July 2017, Slovenia’s Competition Protection Agency began proceedings against Renault, suspecting the company of treating authorized and independent mechanics unequally, thereby abusing its dominant market position.
Renault responded by proposing remedial commitments. The agency published these proposals in November 2017 for public feedback. On May 30, 2018, the agency closed proceedings and accepted Renault’s commitments.
Commitments
Renault agreed that “authorised and independent mechanics will be treated equally (have access to technical information and training under the same conditions).”
The company committed to:
- Adopting and publishing internal procedures for providing mechanics technical information access
- Supplying independent mechanics with necessary technical information for quality vehicle repairs and maintenance
- Offering annual free training on the Renault InfoTech portal, with technical information access independent of training participation
- Publishing pre-training and training schedules with uniform pricing for all mechanics
- Providing teaching materials equally to all mechanics
- Implementing commitments within two months and maintaining them for three years
Thoughts
The agency will monitor Renault’s compliance through annual reporting and document reviews. No competition violation was formally established, but proceedings may reopen for non-compliance, exposing Renault to fines reaching 10% of annual worldwide turnover.