Romania ∙ Between the Presidency of the Council of the EU and National Enforcement

• Published in: CoRe : European competition and regulatory law review Vol. 3; no. 3; pp. 317 - 321
• Main Authors: Marius Chirițoiu, B., Dan Roman, V.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin Lexxion Verlagsgesellschaft mbH 2019
• Subjects: Acquisitions & mergers; Antitrust; Business models; Competition policy; Councils; Debates; Enforcement; Industrial policy; Legislators; Meetings; Regulation; Search engines; Romania
• ISSN: 2510-3148; 2510-3148
• DOI: 10.21552/core/2019/3/12

The year 2019 started for the Romanian Competition Council (NCA, or the Authority) in the same fashion as for the whole Romanian central administration, namely under the umbrella of the Council of the EU Presidency. Besides the very consistent antitrust, mergers and acquisitions, state aid and regulatory portfolio, the NCA has been contributing to political and legislative developments taking place at the EU level, under the six-months rotating chairmanship. In terms of legislation, the Authority has been involved in promoting more transparency and fairness for the online platforms environment, while the policy debates related to the role of competition rules for both digital markets and industrial policy. Besides the EU-wide policy implications of its work, the Authority has been effective in enforcing its traditional mandate of protecting domestic consumers; the past months count for some of the highest fines delivered by the NCA in its history ie totaling €53 million for nine insurance companies and the representative trade association. During the antitrust procedures, one of the nine undertakings involved opted to cooperate with the Authority through the leniency procedure. [...]besides admitting its participation in the illegal exchange of information, the undertaking provided the case-handlers with relevant evidence for proving the facts of the infringement. [...]one of the main findings of the market inquiry was that dissimilar conditions apply to equivalent transactions depending on who pays the repair costs - the owner or the insurance companies (higher in the second scenario). [...]in order to decrease the prices, the NCA argues that it is necessary to proportionally increase the number vehicles in circulation that have a valid insurance.