The Serbian Competition Commission (“Commission“) has suspended the proceeding against Infostan Tehnologije, a public company providing unified utilities billing to the residents of the capital city of Belgrade.
The Commission has found that in September 2015 the households not bound by any insurance agreement received Infostan bills which, in addition to the utility costs, included a household insurance fee invoiced by one of the Serbian-licensed insurers, Generali Osiguranje Srbija. On this ground, the Commission initiated investigation into whether Infostan disclosed consumer data to General Osiguranje Srbija (i.e. information on households which are not invoiced any insurance fees via Infostan’s unified bills), thus abusing its dominant position by discriminating between insurance companies.
In June 2016, Infostan offered commitments, which the Commission accepted on 15 August 2016.
Infostan has committed to (1) invoice commercial services only with the consent of the household; (2) withdraw commercial services from the bill if requested by the household; (3) refrain from disclosing to insurance companies which households do not have household insurance; (4) publish on its website detailed information on possible new services which may be invoiced to Infostan invoice recipients; (5) within next three years, report to the Commission any agreements under which it provides commercial services to third parties, such as including third party leaflet offers into the envelopes with Infostan bills, consolidated billing etc.
