On 16th June 2026, the Slovenian Competition Protection Agency (SCPA) conducted an unannounced inspection at the business premises of CANDY HOOVER, d. o. o., Letališka cesta 29a, 1000 Ljubljana, on the basis of Article 102 of the Act on the Prevention of Restrictions of Competition (ZPOmK-2) and Article 22 of Regulation (EC) No. 1/2003, the latter being the basic EU regulation for the implementation of competition rules (Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU). The investigation was conducted based on a request from the Croatian Competition Agency (AZTN) due to reasonable grounds for suspecting that the companies CANDY HOOVER and HAIER CROATIA, d. o. o., Slavonska avenija 1B, 10000 Zagreb, which form a single economic entity, restricted their distributors (wholesalers) from freely setting the selling prices of Candy, Hoover and Haier brand products on the territory of Slovenia and Croatia, which constitutes a prohibited agreement and a violation of Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU.
“At SCPA, based on an order from the Ljubljana District Court and a request from AZTN, we conducted an investigation at the Candy Hoover company in Ljubljana. For the first time in SCPA’s history, an investigation in Slovenia was conducted simultaneously with an investigation in another EU Member State and based on a request from the competition authority of another EU Member State. I am pleased that the international cooperation was extremely smooth and efficient, as it confirms our readiness and ability to act in a coordinated manner at the EU level. Such cooperation strengthens the role and efficiency of national competition authorities, which is the basic guideline of the ECN+ Directive,” said Andrej Matvoz, Director of SCPA, during the unannounced investigation into the aforementioned company.
SCPA has several investigative instruments at its disposal in the investigation procedure, which is intended to establish the existence of restrictive practices, with the most important being the investigation, in addition to the request for data and information collection. This is the main tool for discovering evidence related to violations of competition law. The fact that an investigation was conducted does not prejudice the finding of violations of the provisions of the competition protection rules.