Global Competition Law is primarly a practitioner's guide presenting the most salient aspects of the major competition laws country by country, giving an overview of their structure and most charasteristic elements.
Global Competition Law also provides insight into possible future developments in the field.

Global Competition Law

The leniency program is set forth in Article 55 of the Act and detailed in the Competition Council's Guidelines on the conditions and criteria for the leniency policy's application, lastly revised on 15 July 2019. The program targets only anticompetitive agreements, to the exclusion of abuses of dominance. 

As in the EU program, total immunity is awarded to the first undertaking that provides inf …

Leniency

The Competition Council may order the immediate cessation of any anticompetitive practices, including either anticompetitive agreements or abuse of dominance. 

The Council may order that the practices be stopped and/or impose special conditions and obligations on the parties. Remedies imposed may be either behavorial or structural. However, structural remedies may only be imposed when there is no equally effective behavioral remedy or when an equally effective behavioral remedy would be more onerous for the undertaking concerned than a structural remedy.

Cease and desist orders

A violation of competition law, through either an anticompetitive agreement or an abuse of dominance exposes the undertaking to a fine up to 10% of the worldwide turnover achieved by the undertaking during the previous financial year. The fine cannot be lower than 0.5% of the turnover achieved in Romania over the previous financial year. 

The final amount fined takes into account the seriousness of the infringement, its duration and consequences on competition, using the criteria of turnover value and market share and according to a scale adopted by Competition Council guidelines.

In December 2020, the Competition Council amended its Fining Guidelines allowing for a reduction of the fine when the turnover on the affected market stands for a small portion of the total turnover of the undertaking. As such, an additional reduction of up to 90% can be granted when the proportion of the targeted turnover is below 5% of the total turnover. 

In addition, the submission of false or misleading information to a Council's request or the refusal to submit to an inspection is punishable by fines from 0.1% to 1% of the total turnover achieved by the undertaking during the previous financial year;

Lastly, periodic fines may also be imposed in order to compel compliance with orders of the Competition Council. A daily penalty of up to 5% of the undertaking's daily turnover in the preceding business year for each day of delay may be imposed on undertakings that do not comply with the prohibitions on anticompetitive agreements and abuses of dominance, or with a decision imposing interim relief, or to submit complete and correct information to the Competition Council or that do not accept inspections. 

Fines

Legal representatives, managers and any person holding a management position in the undertaking who intentionally participated in the conception, organization or achievement of the anticompetitive practices and who are not exempted (the leniency program has been extended to criminal offenders by Law No 187/2012) can be found guilty of a criminal offense.

Criminal sanctions

The leniency program is set forth in Article 55 of the Act and detailed in the Competition Council's Guidelines on the conditions and criteria for the leniency policy's application, lastly revised on 15 July 2019. The program targets only anticompetitive agreements, to the exclusion of abuses of dominance. 

As in the EU program, total immunity is awarded to the first undertaking that provides information and evidence that, in the opinion of the Competition Council, enables it to start investigations and make unannounced inspections on a practice it was unaware of (Type A Leniency) or to find an infringement (Type B Leniency). A marker system is available.

The Leniency guidelines detail precisely the content of the information which must be given by the undertaking. In any case, the initiator of the agreement and/or the economic operator who has taken steps to coerce other economic operators to participate in the agreement or to remain part of it is not eligible for immunity from fines. It can still qualify, however, for a reduction of the fine, if it meets the requirements and conditions set in the guidelines. Economic operators disclosing their participation in an agreement and who do not qualify for immunity may, however, be granted a reduction of the fine if they provide evidence regarding the alleged violation of the Competition Act bringing significant added value compared with that already in possession of the Competition Council. In chronological order, the first to provide such evidence can be granted a reduction of 30% to 50%, the second can expect such reduction to be between 20% and 30% while the reduction for any other cannot exceed 20%.

Any undertaking applying for leniency must: i) provide actual, full, continuous and prompt cooperation with the Competition Council, throughout the investigation procedures; ii) put an end to their participation in the agreement, unless asked to do otherwise by the Council to preserve future investigations, iii) not reveal their intention to request leniency to the other participants. 

It is worth noting that immunity or fine reduction awarded by the Competition Council does not prevent civil actions against the undertaking nor extend to criminal prosecution.

In addition, Law No 347/2015 introduced a new Section 35 to the Competition Act establishing a whistleblowing scheme under which natural persons may spontaneously report competition law infringements to the Competition Council. To this end, the Competition Council has set up an online platform (report.whistleb.com/ro/consiliulconcurentei). The Act provides for the protection of the whistleblower's identity and exemption from the ban on violations of the confidentiality obligation provided by the Labor Code.

Global Competition Law

617. Leniency

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Les notions juridiques connexes

617. Leniency

Demandez un accès gratuit au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise

Les notions juridiques connexes

Demandez un accès gratuit
au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise