Nearly 4 times as many penalties imposed by the Competition Council in 2015 yoy

Competition Council (CC) has sanctioned last year 202 entities, 3.8 times more than the previous year and the total amount of imposed fines exceeded RON 239.6 million (EUR 53.9 million), up by 30 percent year-on-year (yoy), the annual report of the institution shows on Monday.

Most of the investigations on possible infringement of the competition law triggered in 2015 concerns horizontal anticompetitive agreements (cartels).

“ We completed a significant number of investigations, 21 cases in important areas such as electricity, fuels and telecommunications. (…) Following the completion of the 21 cases, the average duration of investigations concerning possible violations of competition rules, ongoing at the end of 2015, it decreased by 6 months compared to the previous year-end,” Bogdan Chiritoiu (photo), the president of the Competition Authority stated.

Last year, CC recorded in the economic concentration area an average duration of analysis of about two months, this value being maintained in the downward trend of the past five years. Almost 60 percent of the economic concentration operations were analyzed by the simplified procedure, which reduced the effort of the notifying parties, compared with 30 percent in 2012.

“ For 2016, we will focus on a number of important economic sectors. Thus we will finalize the sectoral inquiries on drug distribution sector, electricity sector and access services at communications infrastructure of Bucharest (Netcity project). We will analyze a significant economic concentration in food retailing, Billa’s takeover by Carrefour benefiting from the experience gained by analyzing the Real – Auchan operation,” the report also reads.

In the energy field, we will continue analysing the regulatory framework in the context of this sector liberalization.

CC announced that will continue to work with the Government and the European Commission for the restructuring of Romanian Post, CFR Marfa, Oltchim and CEC, providing expert advice in the field of state aid.