Dear Reader,
It is a pleasure to present the Competition Authority’s 2023 Annual Report. Here you will find a comprehensive overview of our efforts and achievements in the past year to protect open markets and ensure fair pricing in Estonia.
Over the past couple of decades, the average number of merger notifications has been 34 per year. 2023 was no exception, with 32 notifications received. During the year, we conducted 15 procedures, completing 9 and continuing 6 into 2024. We also calculated the so-called consumer benefit, which shows that from 2020 to 2022, the Authority’s actions allowed consumers to save a total of nearly 45 million euros. This equates to about 10 euros per year for every resident of Estonia. Our supervisory activities focused on the energy and fuel markets as well as the cinema and pharmacy sectors, among others, including the merger of AS Maag Group and AS HKScan Estonia, which posed a significant challenge in terms of potential market dominance and the impact of the transaction on competition.
In terms of economic regulation, it was another busy year – we carried out over a thousand administrative procedures or actions, including nearly 300 price procedures and more than 600 complaints or inquiries. In sectors such as water, district heating, and gas, which are subject to economic regulation, we remained active and consistently reminded businesses of their legal obligation to reduce tariffs when input prices fall. As a result, prices for water and district heating decreased in many areas at a time when consumer prices were generally rising. Here too, our effective price regulation saved consumers approximately 54,3 million euros in 2023. This year, a significant focus in economic regulation has been on supervising monopolistic enterprises, particularly in the electricity and gas networks. We conducted a supervision concerning Elektrilevi OÜ due to several extensive outages in its network that could not solely be attributed to weather conditions. It is gratifying to note that the company has since taken significant steps to improve the situation and enhance both its crisis management and the maintenance of systematically important assets.
2023 was also a successful year for cooperation, both with external partners and, especially, at the national level with entrepreneurs, ministries, and other stake[1]holders. We aim to continue with proven forms of cooperation because we believe that it is better to address issues related to economic regulation and competition supervision through prevention and dialogue rather than enforcement and compulsion. This approach not only makes economic and competition supervision more 5 effective but also helps to build mutual trust and align the interests of stakeholders with the objectives of public services.
We are proud of our enhanced toolkit, which, in addition to standard market analysis and research, allows us to implement data analysis tools. We believe that increasing digital competencies and using technological solutions will significantly strengthen our ability to assess market developments, and more importantly, will enable us to detect anti-competitive or consumer-damaging behavior more effectively and accurately.
All the measures taken in 2023 are crucial and support the Authority’s efforts to ensure reliable and high-quality services for consumers, primarily in open markets and at fair prices. We will continue to monitor and analyze critical markets for consumers in 2024. We are committed to maintaining vigilant supervision to ensure that Estonian markets remain open to competition and prices are fair.
Sincerely,
Evelin Pärn-Lee