Relevant legislation and statutory standards

With regard to regulating merger control in Albania, the legal basis for doing so is mainly found in Law No. 9121 ‘On the protection of competition’ dated 28 July 2003 (the ‘Competition Act’), which aims to protect free and effective competition in the country.

Further, the Competition Authority has embarked on a series of planned legislative changes to further harmonise the legislation with the acquis communautaire of the EU. Such legislative changes concern changes to the Competition Act, the introduction of a new regulation on de minimis agreements, an amendment of the regulation on fines and leniency thereof, and a series of guidelines on the assessment of mergers.

Decision-making bodies and enforcement authority(ies)

In Albania, both the Competition Authority (the ‘Authority’) and the Competition Commission (the ‘Commission’), as the Authority’s decision-making body, are principally responsible for the enforcement of the Competition Act.

From its seat in Tirana, the Authority acts as an independent legal public entity. Further, the Authority acts either ex parte or at the request of the National Assembly or the relevant regulatory entities, and is responsible for protecting fair competition, e.g. by conducting investigations in a given sector of the economy in cases indicating that fair competition in the market is being violated.