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CPC still headless

22/11/2011 14:50
The Commission for the Protection of Competition remains headless since May after the successful appeal of the oil companies to the Supreme Court against the decision for the imposition of a fine of 3.5 million for a cartel.

Within the framework of the presentation of the CPC budget to the Parliament, chair of the Commission, Loukia Christodoulou said that the CPC no longer investigates complaints for a carter in the market or a breach of competition, while the decisions taken in the past three years have been cancelled.

The Supreme Court decided in May that the appointment of CPC Chairman, Costakis Christoforou by the Council of Minister was illegal.

According to Mrs. Christodoulou, the CPC considered that since the appointment of the new Chairman by the Council of Ministers is a matter of time, it will not investigate new complaints.

She also explained that if the CPC investigated specific cases in the absence of the Chairman and then the Council of Ministers appointed a new one, it should start investigating the case from the start.

With regard to the mergers, however, the CPC continues to examine and issue decisions within a month.

According to figures submitted from 2002 to October 19, 2011, the CPC has imposed fines of €98.1 million and has received €54.4 million.

After the Supreme Court’s decision, €36 million were returned.

According to Mrs. Christodoulou, the CPC decisions fell to court due to the composition of the Commission and not the substance of the cases.

Also, due to the recent Supreme Court decision, the decisions an fines that CPC has imposed in the past three years “fell” too.

The members of the House Finance Committee urged the government to appoint a new CPC Chairman.

Chairman of the Committee and DIKO MP, Nicolas Papadopoulos said that the Commission cannot remain leaderless because promiscuity will continue.