Illustrative image. (source: SME - Marko Erd)
Advertising company United Classifieds, in which the Penta financial group has a 40 percent stake, was fined by the Anti-monopoly Office of the Slovak Republic which accuses it of abusing its dominant position against the real estate agency and developer clients and other unfair business practices.
The company was also constantly losing money despite violating the rules of free market competition, reports the Denník N daily.
Business practices
The group does not want to comment on the €675,000 fine, saying it is only a financial partner and that the remaining 60 percent stake belongs to the Ringier media group who has the managerial control.
The Association of Real Estate Agencies (ZRKS), which had filed a motion against the advertising company already in 2021, welcomed the decision and suggests that further lawsuits might follow in order to compensate its members.
United Classifieds operates the topreality.sk, nehnutelnosti.sk, reality.sk websites. The Anti-monopoly Office says that since 2020, the company has applied unreasonable business conditions in regards its clients in the form of an advertising package. The clients were not allowed to choose which they could advertise on, only on all three. In addition, real estate agencies were restricted in accessing of the company's websites, with the latter forcing them to use its own solution.
Possible optimisation of taxes
The Office ordered the company to end the practices within 90 days after the decision came into force. However, that has yet to happen and the United Classifieds said it will appeal against it. According to CEO Milan Konečný, the company does not have a dominant position on the market and that its strategy is in no way different that what is common.
According to the daily, although the company's sales rose from €6 million to €9.5 million between 2019 and 2023, it still lost more than €1.5 million over the period. Tax and accounting expert Renáta Bláhová told the daily that explains that the depreciation of goodwill from the revaluation of its intangible assets worsened the numbers, otherwise it would have been in profit. This might be an artificial reduction on its parts to avoid the Anti-monopoly Office and optimisation of taxes.
