Competition law and antitrust law in Greece

Greek antitrust law is governed by Law 3959/2011 (“Protection of Free Competition”), which is harmonised with EU competition law and relates mainly to cartels, the abuse of dominant market positions, and merger control. The competent authority is the Hellenic Competition Commission (Επιτροπή Ανταγωνισμού), whose organisation was most recently restructured by Law 4886/2022 – since then, decisions are, in principle, taken by the plenary session of the Commission.

Prohibition of Agreements Restricting Competition

Under Art. 1 of Law 3959/2011, all agreements, conduct, and decisions by associations of undertakings are prohibited that have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction, or distortion of competition. This covers, in particular:
• the direct or indirect fixing of purchase or selling prices or other trading conditions,
• the limitation or control of production, sales, technical development, or investment,
• the sharing of supply or sales markets,
• the application of dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions without objective justification, and
• making the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance of supplementary obligations that have no objective connection with the subject of such contracts.
Such agreements may be exempted in whole or in part where, allowing consumers a fair share of the resulting benefit, they contribute to improving the production or distribution of goods or to promoting technical or economic progress, do not impose restrictions beyond what is necessary, and do not afford the possibility of eliminating competition in respect of a substantial part of the goods concerned.

Abuse of a Dominant Market Position

Also prohibited is the abuse of a dominant market position, for example by imposing unfair prices or trading conditions, limiting production, sales, or technical development to the detriment of consumers, refusing supply or purchase without objective justification and with anticompetitive effect, or making contracts subject to unrelated supplementary obligations.

Merger Control

A concentration within the meaning of Law 3959/2011 exists where at least two previously independent undertakings merge in any manner, or where a person already controlling one or more undertakings acquires control of a further undertaking. Under the still-applicable version of Art. 6, every concentration must be notified to the Competition Commission within 30 days of the conclusion of the agreement, the publication of the takeover offer, or the acquisition of a controlling interest, where the aggregate worldwide turnover of all undertakings concerned exceeds €150,000,000 and at least two of the undertakings concerned each achieve turnover of more than €15,000,000 on the Greek market.
A concentration that is not notified in breach of this duty can be sanctioned with a fine of at least €30,000, up to 10% of the aggregate turnover of the undertakings concerned. The Competition Commission examines notified concentrations and prohibits them where serious doubts exist as to their compatibility with competition law; otherwise, the merger is cleared.
Note: Since Law 4886/2022, the Competition Commission has also had expanded digital investigative powers available to it (Art. 38A); procedural details should be checked against the current, consolidated version of the law.