The Competition Authority has fined Star Parking Albania once again for failing to meet the obligations imposed on it following an in-depth investigation into the management of parking facilities at Tirana International Airport "Nënë Tereza". Based on the monitoring report, the Competition Commission decided to fine Star Parking Albania 756,581 lekë for not complying with the obligations sanctioned in the Commission's 2022 decision.
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| In the main parking lot of Tirana Airport |
In November 2022, the Competition Authority concluded an in-depth investigation into the management of parking facilities at Tirana International Airport "Nënë Tereza" and fined Star Parking Albania an amount equivalent to 1% of its annual turnover, approximately 1.6 million lekë. At that time, the Authority determined that the commitments submitted by Star Parking Albania SHPK were sufficient to address competition concerns in the market. These commitments were deemed mandatory and were set as conditions and obligations.
Star Parking Albania was required to develop a methodology for calculating the costs to form the price of telepasses and to apply cost-oriented tariffs for companies that acquire telepasses and for any other service. Additionally, the company was mandated under the law "On the Protection of Competition" not to abuse its dominant position, particularly by setting unfair purchase or selling prices or other unfair trading conditions; restricting production, markets, or technical development; applying unequal conditions for equivalent transactions with different parties, placing them at a competitive disadvantage; and imposing conditions for contract conclusion that obligate other parties to accept supplementary obligations unrelated to the contract's subject.
Star Parking Albania was to be monitored for a one-year period to ensure compliance with these conditions and obligations. However, after a year of monitoring, the Competition Authority concluded that the company did not fulfill these obligations.
The contracts made with companies requesting telepass services revealed that the condition "Star Parking charges a fee of 6000 lekë in case of loss or damage of the telepass as compensation" was not uniformly applied to all companies with a telepass contract with Star Parking. This condition was only applied to Global Fast Food Albania SHPK, A&A Aeroport SHPK, and Air Albania SHPK.
In 2023 contracts, Star Parking specified "a telepass obligation of 6000 lekë" for Global Fast Food Albania SHPK, while for Air Albania SHPK, it specified "an obligation of 180,000 lekë for a telepass". For Mulliri i Vjetër SHPK, the obligation was set at "180,000 lekë for a telepass for one license plate", and for Sombrero SHPK, it was "180,000 lekë for a telepass for one license plate".
It was observed that for other companies, the contract only specified the obligation for the number of telepasses requested without the license plate condition.
In 2022, Alba Wings paid 72,000 lekë for a telepass for one year, whereas Air Albania in 2023 paid a total of 360,000 lekë for two telepasses for one year.
Based on these examples, the Competition Commission found that Star Parking Albania applied unequal conditions to companies contracting for telepasses and did not provide reasons for this differential treatment.
Therefore, the Commission decided to fine Star Parking 756,581 lekë and continue monitoring the implementation of the conditions and obligations specified in point III of the Competition Commission's decision no. 921, dated 09.11.2022, "On closing the in-depth investigation into the management of parking facilities at Tirana International Airport 'Nënë Tereza' and approving the commitments as mandatory in the form of conditions and obligations for the company 'Star Parking Albania SHPK'" for another year.