ANNUAL REPORT 2010 - Konkurentsiamet

The Competition Authority has the opinion that public interests do not justify the serious
competition restriction included in the Public Transport Act §41 (2) (2). An authority
granting the line permits should only have the right to demand that long-distance lines
would not depart from a bus station with such a small interval that it would be mutually
obstructive physically. Proceeding from the above, the Competition Authority
recommended that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications initiate the
relevant amendment to remove the restriction specified in the Public Transport Act § 41
(2)(2) and also submitted its opinions to the Economic Commission of the Riigikogu.
Proposal for amendment of the Funded Pensions Act
On 21.07.2010 the Competition Authority submitted to the Ministry of Finance the
amendment proposals of the draft for the amendment of the Funded Pensions Act and
related acts. The Authority had already before repeatedly stressed the need to make the
regulation of a mandatory funded pension more flexible for the consumers and more
efficient from the standpoint of competition between trustees.
On July 2, 2010 the Ministry of Finance submitted the draft for amendment of the Funded
Pensions Act and related acts to the ministries for approval. Pursuant to the Funded
Pensions Act valid at that moment the units of a pension fund could be changed only once a
year. In the opinion of the Competition Authority this was a serious restriction of the
freedom of choice of the consumers and thus also of the competition between the trustees
and the entry of new service providers to the market was difficult. Pursuant to the draft
submitted by the Ministry of Finance the consumers would have had the possibility to
change the existing units of a mandatory pension fund three times a year and channel new
payments to another fund in three business days. The Competition Authority has the
opinion that even the possibility to change a mandatory pension funds three times in a year
still restricts the freedom of choice of the consumers and efficient competition. It would be
difficult for new service providers to enter the market in a situation where it is possible only
three times a year to compete efficiently for the clients.
The restriction of the change of pension funds has been mainly explained by the fact that
permission of more frequent change would incline the investment policy of trustees to
orientate towards an undesirably short-term benefit and would send the wrong signal to the
unit owner, whose knowledge of investment is probably not too high. On the other hand,
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