The Concept of Leniency in the Republic of North Macedonia

Abstract

The concept of "leniency" in competition law, or better known as the "leniencyprogramme", has proven to be an extremely important instrument in fighting unfair competition.In the Republic of Northern Macedonia (hereinafter RNM), this concept of suppressing orreducing unfair competition, more or less, exists solely as a law conception. Nowadays, when theEU discusses the impact of the global crisis and the Coronavirus pandemic on the level ofutilization of ”leniency programme", this concept is still unknown or not a well-known conceptfor business sector in RNM. The main focus of this article is “leniency programme” in RNM. The key questions thatwe aim to answer here, are: whether and to what extent this instrument is predicted inMacedonian competition law? Is it predicted only as a law category, or it has practicalimplications too? Although this research refers to RNM, we strongly believe that a thoroughstudy of “leniency” requires exploration of European conception of “leniency” too. For thatpurpose, we use relevant EU legislation, as well as practice. Thus, our main goal is to considerthe position of RNM towards “leniency” and bring into relation to the Macedonian competitionlaw.We base our hypothetical framework on the assumption that the applicability of “leniencyprogramme” in RNM is at the lowest level. Furthermore, that the undertakings are not interestedin applying “leniency”. This situation is partly due to the lack of information, the complexity ofthe application procedure, as well as other factors that are related not only to the attitude of theexecutive of undertakings, but more to the general economic circumstances, economicdevelopment, the market size of goods and services, etc. Using the analytical-descriptive method, the comparative method, and the method ofanalysis and synthesis, we’ll elaborate the situation in RNM regarding this issue, and we willpresent our views considering the questions: whether certain measures should be taken regarding„leniency program“, and what should be done to boost the use of this program in the Macedonianbusiness sector