The Commission for Protection of Competition approved the proposed commitments by Nikon Europe B.V. and Profield Ltd.

By Decision No. 699/29.09.2022 delivered under case No. КЗК-69/2018, the Commission for Protection of Competition approved the proposals for commitments by Nikon Europe B.V. and Profiled OOD in relation to allegations of infringement of Art. 15, par. 1 of the LPC and art. 101 (1) TFEU.

The proceedings before the CPC were instituted upon a complaint filed by PRG International, which has requested delivery of spare parts and provision of technical data, necessary for the performance of aftersales services for Nikon cameras. The necessary components and information have not been provided to PRG International with arguments that the latter did not meet the criteria for admission to the authorized network, set forth by the manufacturer.

By Ruling No.1350/12.12.2019, the CPC addressed to Nikon Europe B.V. and Profiled OOD allegations of committed infringement of Art. 15, par. 1 of the LPC and art. 101 (1) TFEU.

The Commission's preliminary assessment is that the conduct of the parties will have the effect of restricting access to the market, given that only one company is active on the after-sales services market, and therefore the conduct is likely to constitute an infringement of those provisions.

On the basis of Art. 75, para. 1 of the LPC, Nikon Europe B.V. and Profield OOD propose to undertake commitments to achieve the cessation of the above-mentioned conduct.

The commitments include the adoption of a Policy containing the criteria for the admission of new service partners, signing of Annexes to the Selective Distribution Agreement with a national importer and the Non-exclusive Distributor Agreement, and measures to fulfil orders for spare parts from independent specialist repairers.

In this proceeding, the Commission for the first time carried out the so-called Market test according to Art. 75, para. 3 of the LPC, by publishing a notice of the proposed obligations in the electronic register. Within the time period specified therein, participants on the relevant market and/or associations thereof had the opportunity to submit information and an opinion on the proposed obligations.

The Commission considers that the proposed commitments will lead to the cessation of the possibility of the alleged anticompetitive conduct continuing and will remove the CPC's competition concerns. The existence of a clear policy, within which admission criteria and procedures are objective and defined in detail, will provide potential applicants for authorisation with the necessary legal certainty and will lead to the creation of conditions for the restoration of the competitive process in the relevant market, by applying equal conditions of access to all potential service providers.

Pursuant to Art. 5, proposal 3 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 of 16 December 2002 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Art. 81 and 82 of the Treaty, the competition authorities of the Member States have the power to apply Art. 81 and 82 of the Treaty in individual cases. To that end, acting on their own initiative or on a complaint, they may decide to accept commitments.

In view of the above and on the basis of the above considerations, the CPC finds that the commitments proposed by Nikon Europe B.V. and Profield OOD satisfy the assessment criteria set out in the Rules on considering proposals for undertaking of commitments under the LPC, remedying the competitive problems that have arisen and therefore the commitments proposed by Nikon Europe B.V. and Profield OOD are appropriate to be approved by the CPC and the proceedings terminated.