The Competition Authority announced that, based on media information regarding the announcement by bakeries about the increase in the price of bread, on November 1, it has started immediate monitoring in the field to identify any abusive behavior in violation of the law no. 9121/2003 "On the Protection of Competition".

The law prohibits all agreements that have as an object or as a consequence the obstruction, restriction, or distortion of competition in the market, especially agreements that determine directly or indirectly, purchase or sale prices, or any other trading conditions.

The Competition Authority has reminded bread production and trading enterprises that the violation of the law constitutes an administrative misdemeanor and is sanctioned with a fine, in the amount of up to 10% of the turnover of the previous financial year of the enterprises involved in illegal agreements.

In April, the Energy Regulatory Authority approved the new electricity sales prices for bakery and flour production customers to be applied by the Universal Service Supplier.

For each category, the price of active energy in peak hours has been approved, which for the period November 1 - March 31 is 18:00-22:00, while for the period April 1 - October 31 it is 19:00-23:00.

According to the decision of the ERE Board, for the first category, which includes bakery and flour production, the selling price of electricity is 7.6 Lek/kWh, while the peak hour price is 8.74 Lek/kWh.