Relevant legislation and statutory standards

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, merger control, as well as other aspects of competition law, is governed by the Competition Act (‘the Act’) which was adopted in 2005 and has been amended twice. The Act was enacted at the state level and applies in the entire territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), i.e. in both entities, the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH) and the Republic of Srpska (RS).

In addition to the Act, numerous regulations and decisions have been adopted that set out the procedural framework and define the standards for application of the Act. These regulations include inter alia the Decision on Definition of the Relevant Market and the Regulation on Notification of Concentrations and Criteria for Assessment of Concentrations.

The competition laws of BiH are generally in line with the rules and principles of the EU competition law regime. In practice, the BiH competition authority uses the EU competition law standards as a guide to deciding the cases brought before it.

The Act is applicable to any form of prevention, restriction or distortion of competition on the territory of BiH or outside of BiH, if such event(s) has (have) a substantial effect on the market of BiH.