Globalization
and liberalization are the emerging pressures of international trading and investment in
integrated global market.
Thus,
competition policy will be the key determinant of sectoral
efficiency and innovation, enhancing economy-wide flexibility and potential growth,
increasing consumer choice, price reduction and welfare, and increasing government
effectiveness in maintaining high standards of environmental, consumer, and safety
protections.
Healthy competition principles are important in all aspects of
regulatory reform, including privatization and restructuring where the state is reducing
its direct involvement in the economy and the ongoing work of governments in regulating an
economy. Competition principles can act as a guide to reform that will enhance dynamic and
competitive markets, which foster growth and economic welfare.
In line with
art.135, par 1 of the Constitution, the Romanian economy is a market economy, based on
free initiative and competition. According to these provisions all development policies
should take into account the imperative to promote competition in the context of a
sustainable development.
LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK
AND PROVISIONS
ANTITRUST
The antitrust field in Romania is
regulated by Competition Law no.21/1996, with subsequent amendments and completions,
republished.
Taking into
account the fact that Romania is passing through a very intensive process for acceding EU
on January 1st, 2007, the EC competition rules had to be adopted and enforced
in Romania at Community standards.
Therefore,
the 2004 and 2005 changes in the legislative and institutional framework were highly
appreciated by the European Commission and have created a better image as regards the
progresses made by Romania in the competition field.
The adoption of the
Competition Law represented an important step in normalizing the behaviours of
undertakings in the economy by defining the rules of acting in a normal competitive
environment and establishing the methods of defending the consumers' interests.
Through Law no. 21/1996
and the secondary legislation issued in its application, Romania fulfilled the obligations
of the Association Agreement between Romania and European Union regarding the competition
policy, ensuring thus a high degree of compatibility that refers to the way of approaching
and regulating the anticompetitive agreements and concerted practices, abuse of dominant
position and the control of the economic concentrations.
The legislation on
competition policy follows the principles of the Community legislation. The provisions of
the articles 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty (including Regulation no. 1/2003 on the
application of these articles) have been taken over by articles 5 and 6 of the Law no.
21/1996.
The provisions of the
acquis regarding the control of the economic concentrations were taken over by the
Regulation regarding the authorization of the economic concentrations and by several other
Regulations and Guidelines adopted by Competition Council. In the same spirit, Competition
Council is preparing to apply Regulation 139/2004, after accession.
The Law is aimed at
protecting, maintaining and stimulating competition to the benefit of consumers, and at
creating the conditions to assess the behaviour of economic agents based on uniform
principles.
It must be specified the
fact that the Law ensures the protection of competition, not of the competitors
(protection of competition leads to advantages for consumers and for efficient companies,
while protecting the competitors leads to inefficiency).
The incidence of the
regulations is general and non-discriminatory. The Law is applicable to
undertakings defined, broadly, as "individuals or legal entities - Romanian or
foreign - irrespective of nationality or citizenship", irrespective of their
organization form or the nature of their social capital. As well, the Law applies to the
central and local public administration bodies to the extent in which they intervene on
the market, influencing directly or indirectly the competition.
As the Competition Law no. 21/1996,
with subsequent amendments and completions, stipulates within art. 2 (4), exclusions from
its application area refer to:
a) Labor
market and labor relations;
b)
Monetary market and the securities market, to the extent that free competition in these
markets is subject to special regulations.
The Law prohibits the anticompetitive
practices as well as the abusive monopolist behaviours, such as:
- "any express or tacit agreements between undertakings or associations of
undertakings, any decisions by associations of undertakings and any concerted practices,
which have as their object or may have as their effect the restriction, prevention or
distortion of competition on the Romanian market or on a part of it" and
- "any abuse of a dominant position held by one or more undertakings on the Romanian
market or on a substantial part of it, by resorting to anticompetitive deeds, which have
as an object or may have as an effect the distortion of commerce or the prejudice of
consumers".
The Competition Law
prohibits, as well, "economic concentrations which, having the
effect of creating or consolidating a dominant position, lead to or are likely to lead to
a significant restriction, prevention or distortion of competition on the Romanian market
or on a part of it".
However, as regards both
the agreements and the economic concentrations, the Law grants exemptions on criteria that
compare the anticompetitive effects with those in the benefit of consumer and the national
economy.
Thus, it must be specified
that not all agreements or concerted practices are, by themselves, illegal or generators
of prejudices, some of them could benefit of exemptions from the prohibition provided as
general rule, because they could contribute at the improvement of the production or
distribution, at the promotion of technical progress, at the improvement of the products
quality and the competitiveness degree of those on the internal and external market, at
the strengthening of the competitive positions of SMEs.
In addition, it must be
underlined the fact that having a dominant position on the Romanian market is not
prohibited. The undertakings that have a dominant position on the relevant market, fall
under the provisions of the Law only if they abuse of their dominant position through
anticompetitive deeds that have as object or effect the distortion of the commerce or the
consumers prejudice.
The economic
concentrations, which may be achieved by merger or through a direct or indirect
acquisition of control over one or more undertakings, are prohibited to the extent that
they create or consolidate a dominant position and lead to or are likely to lead to a
significant restriction, prevention or distortion of competition on the Romanian market or
on a part of it. The economic concentrations may be authorized if, analyzing them pursuant
to the criteria provided for in the Competition Law, they are compatible with a normal
competition environment, and if the involved undertakings prove they cumulatively fulfil
certain conditions such as: increase of the economic efficiency and of the competitiveness
of exports, benefits for consumer through reduced real prices.
Decisions regarding
anticompetitive practices and economic concentrations do not apply to undertakings whose
turnover and share market are under the level provided by the Law. There are excepted from
this rule the anticompetitive practices that refer to prices, tariffs, agreements on
sharing the market and tenders, which are considered to damage the competition
environment, regardless their turnover or market share level owned by the involved
undertakings.
Currently, the sanctioning
policy is more deterrent, after its complete harmonization with the community legislation.
The Competition Law provides severe sanctions for cases of infringement of competition
rules. The maximum level of the fines that can be applied is of 10% from the
undertaking’s turnover.
As regards the procedural
phase, the Law establishes fines up to 1% of the
undertaking’s turnover, in cases of failure to notify an economic concentration, to
provide requested information and documents and to be subject of an inspection.
As well, comminatory fines
of up to 5% of the daily average turnover of the
financial year prior to the sanctioning, for each day of delay, calculated from the date
set up in the decision, in order to determine them to observe the legal provisions as
stipulated in the Competition Law.
Following
the amendment of the Competition Law, the Competition Council was entrusted with the
application of the Leniency Policy with regard to cartel cases. In order to encourage the companies, which are part of
a cartel, to collaborate with the Competition Council, these companies benefit of a
special treatment consisting in immunity to fine or the reduction of the fine, function of
the contribution of the company to denouncing the cartel
STATE AID
State
aid policy represents an important part of the competition policy, taking into
account that State aid is a selective measure of public financial support granted to
certain undertakings, areas or activities in order to achieve objectives of general
interest, such as: environmental protection; development of SMEs; development of lagging
regions so to eliminate the existing gaps; development of research and innovation etc.
On one hand,
the State aid policy aims at correlating the economic development objectives
included in national plans and sectoral strategies and, on the other hand, at efficiently
directing public funds allocated for economic development and for the improvement of human
resources’ performances.
Moreover,
for the business environment, for national and international finance institutions, as well
as for consumers an enhanced transparency is pursued as concerns the
orientation of investments and related incentives, the definition of the access conditions
to these investments and the obligations to be undertaken in this respect.
So to ensure
State aid efficiency, the following guiding principles are taken into account by the
Romanian government:
a.
the identification of the national
economy key sectors, taking into consideration its potential, the interdependence with the
EU economy, as well as, generally, the connection with the expected perspectives of the
global economy;
b.
the social priorities: demography,
quality of life, education (average and high level), culture, movement of persons
(tourism, transport), habitat, environmental protection etc.;
c.
achieving a sustainable development so
that the needs of present generations are satisfied without compromising the possibility
of future generations to satisfy their own aspirations;
d.
the selection of the financial
resources that could be used for supporting priority projects.
Similarly
with the case of new EU members from Central and Eastern Europe, the accession of Romania
to the European Union will lead to the necessity to gradually reduce the
percentage of State aid in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) so to observe the
usual limits set at Community level. This shall imply a better targeting of State aid
available for satisfying, with priority, Romania’s economic development needs in
accordance with the global and sectoral strategies adopted by the national authorities.
When Romania
shall join the European Union, the competence for State aid authorisation shall be
transferred from national level to the European Commission, which shall enforce
the Community rules in this field. For this reason, the national legislation in
the field of State aid will be amended in accordance with Romania’s new
status as a Member State. Furthermore, the national legislation shall be amended in order
to establish the procedures to be applied for the coordination between
the authorities involved in the process of granting State aid. This coordination is
required as concerns the drafting of the notification forms, the provision of information
on the block exempted aids, the State aid reporting and monitoring etc.
After accession, the
grantors and initiators, with the Competition Council’s support, shall ensure the
effective enforcement of the State aid measures by drafting and notifying State
aid schemes or individual aids in order to obtain the Commission’s
approval (except the “de minimis” and block exempted aids).
The Romanian
Government, at the initiative of the Competition Council, approved on May 24th
the “Policy in the State Aid Field during 2006-2013”. According to this
document, the Competition Council will be the “Contact Point”, through which the
interface with the European Commission will be ensured, and will represent Romania in its
dialogue and activities initiated with the European Commission, and, at national level, it
will have the following attributions:
Elaborating and sustaining Romania’s position as regards the
national State aid policy;
Providing consultancy to the State aid grantors in elaborating
notifications;
Analyzing notifications from the national State Aid grantors before
their submission to the EC;
Coordinating the submission of the notifications to the European
Commission;
Elaborating Romania’s contribution to the EU State Aid
Scoreboard according to EU requirements.
Starting
with 2006 concrete measures and actions shall be enforced for achieving the objectives set
through the Romanian State Aid Policy Paper.
The
established priorities are to be supported through State aid measures compatible with the
Romanian and EC legislation, respectively measure which can be framed under 1):
a) Regional
aid: regional aids concern mainly the investments and job creation with the aim
to accelerate the development of certain regions or reduce/eliminate the
development disparities existing within a region.
Investments
may be oriented towards the creation and extension of a new enterprise, diversification of
production, introduction of new products, fundamentally changing the overall production
process within an existing enterprise etc.
According to a new Commission draft
Regulation, starting with 1 January 2007, regional investment aid schemes shall be
exempted from the notification and EC approval requirements provided that the aid awarded
fulfils certain conditions.
b)
Aid for SMEs: this type of State aid encourages investments that lead to
the development of SMEs as a factor of social stability and economic growth.
Because the development of SMEs may be
sometimes limited due to the market’s failure, the difficult access to capital or
credit, limited access to information etc., the investments will be encouraged
through various methods, such as: grants (partial coverage of the operating costs during
the first years of existence, specialised consultancy services for business development
offered at preferential tariffs etc.), risk capital etc.
This type of aid is exempted from the
notification and EC approval requirements provided that the aid awarded fulfils certain
conditions.
c)
Aid for research and development: taking into account the importance of
research and development for economic re-launch and growth, as well as for the creation of
new jobs, this type of aid encourages R&D activities through investments for
the acquisitions of the necessary instruments, equipments, land, buildings, for
the employment of specialised personnel, for covering costs related to consultancy
services in the field of R&D etc.
This type of aid is exempted from the
notification and EC approval requirements provided that the aid awarded fulfils certain
conditions.
d)
Aid for environmental protection: this type of aid mainly supports investments
aimed at: improving the environmental protection standards; preventing
and restoring the damages caused to the environment or to the natural resources; energy
saving; producing energy from renewable sources; sustaining the production of energy in
combined heat and power installations etc.
e)
Employment aid: this type of aid may be mainly granted under a State aid
scheme for job creation or for the recruitment of disadvantaged/disabled people. This type
of aid may support the investments required for adapting the
employer’s premises in order to make possible the recruitment of disabled persons.
Some of the granting methods are: partial coverage of the costs related to the employment
of new persons; partial or total exemption, within a predefined amount, from the payment
of certain taxes and social contributions related to the disabled persons newly employed
etc.
This type of aid is exempted from the
notification and EC approval requirements provided that the aid awarded fulfils certain
conditions.
f)
Training aid: this type of aid may be granted in all sectors of activity.
The specific training is provided mainly with respect to the employee’s present or
future position. The general training provides qualifications which are largely
transferable to other firms or activities. The aid for general training is less distortive
for competition than the aid for specific training. This type of State aid is generally
granted through subsidising costs generated by employees’ training activities.
This type of aid is exempted from the
notification and EC approval requirements provided that the aid awarded fulfils certain
conditions.
g) Aid
for rescue and restructuring firms in difficulty: this type of aid is granted especially
when justified by arguments of social or regional policy or by the need to take into
consideration the positive role of SMEs or, exceptionally, when there is an interest to
maintain certain undertakings on a given market structure so to avoid a monopoly or a
narrow oligopoly.
h)
Aid in the form of risk capital: this type of aid aims at correcting some
failures of the financial markets as concerns their capacity to provide the required
capital, especially for start-ups and undertakings operating in the field of high
technologies. The advantage of this type of aid is that it does not encourage the
undertakings’ dependency on the State’s financial support because, by
definition, risk capital funds have a mechanism which allows the public capital to be
withdrawn after a predefined maximum period.
i)
Aid for compensating net losses generated by the provision of services of general
economic interest: this type of aid has the role of ensuring the provision of
quality essential services, in sufficient quantities and at reasonable prices, for all
citizens, irrespective of their geographic positioning. The State’s financial
intervention is required whenever the market fails to provide certain services under the
aforesaid conditions. When such a public support represents State aid, it is essential to
observe the proportionality principle, namely the need to limit the
State’s financial support to what is absolutely necessary for the compensation of the
net costs generated by the provision of the respective service of general interest.
According to the EC Decision from
13.07.2005, published in the Official Journal L 312/29.11.2005, this type of aid is
exempted from the notification and EC approval requirements provided that the aid awarded
fulfils certain conditions.
j)
Aid under the “de minimis”
threshold: this type of aid could be used in given cases. In these situations,
the amounts granted to the undertakings can not exceed the EUR 100,000 ceiling over a
3-year period and can not be used for subsidising the export.
k)
Sectoral aid: in the sectors considered to be sensitive, specific State
aid rules are applicable. These sectors are: coal industry, steel sector, synthetic fibres
industry, motor vehicles and shipbuilding industries. Also, special rules apply in
agriculture and fishery, as well as in the air and maritime transport sectors.
Enforcing these measures in line with
the identified priorities will ensure confidence in the governmental policies, as well as
the necessary transparency as concerns the allocation of public funds.
Before
accession, the State aid measures are still to be authorised by the Competition Council
and may be authorized only if they meet the criteria stipulated
by the specific regulations and guidelines in the field.
_____________________________
1) As concerns the regional State aid, the
present document reflects the EU rules that shall be applicable starting with 1 January
2007.
In case of illegal State
aids instituted by a normative act having the judicial force of a law, the Competition
Council advises the issuing authority and informs instantly the State aid grantor and
beneficiary about this intimation. Within 10 days from the advice, the issuing authority
is obliged to make a decision regarding the suspension of the act through which the State
aid was granted. Within 30 days from the date of the mentioned intimation, the grantor and
initiator are obliged to notify to the Competition Council the State aid measure in
accordance with the legal provisions.
Taking into account the
decision of the Competition Council, the issuing authority will make a decision with
regard to the amendment of the normative act, respectively with regard to the recovery or
reimbursement of the State aids already granted. If, after issuing a forbidding decision
by the Competition Council, a State aid is granted by a normative act having the judicial
force of a law, the Competition Council will intimate the issuing authority. Taking into
account the decision of the Competition Council, within 30 days, this authority will make
a decision with regard to the recovery and reimbursement of the already granted State
aids. The State aid Law provides that the deadline in which the Competition Council has
the right to request the recovery of the State aid is of 10 years, being thus transposed
the limitation period regulated at Community level.
In order to facilitate the recovery
of illegal state aid, GEO no 129/2005 provides that the recovery decisions of both
Competition Council and grantor are enforceable by execution.
By Order no.51/12.03.2004
of the President of the Competition Council, the value of the State aid considered as
authorized (not falling under the notification obligation) has been modified from ROL 3
billion to ROL 4 billion, taking into account the existing ceiling at Community level,
amounting to Euro 100,000.
The attributions on
reporting, inventorying, monitoring and elaborating the Annual Report on State Aids
granted in Romania are entrusted to the Competition Council.
COMPETITION COUNCIL
ROLE
The Romanian Competition
Council was set up in 1996, based on the provisions of the Competition Law no.21/1996.
According to the law, the
Competition Council is aimed at protecting and stimulating the competition, in order to
insure a normal competitive environment and the promotion of customers' interests.
The Competition Council
represents Romania in the relationships with specialized international organisations and
institutions and co-operates with foreign and community competition authorities.
Competition Council also
administrates the Law no.143/1999 on State aid, having attributions in authorising,
monitoring, reporting and controlling State aid.
The new responsibilities provided for in the legislative framework
have considerably strengthened the role of the Competition Council as guardian of the
market economy. Currently, the Competition Council is the core authority as concerns the
protection of the correct functioning of the market economy.
Over the recent years, the
improvement of the Competition Council’s activity towards becoming a credible and
strong institution among European competition authorities helped Romania to achieve
significant progress in this field enabling the closure of the accession negotiations on
the competition policy chapter in December 2004 and avoiding the activation of the
safeguard clause.
The
role of the Competition Council as an autonomous administrative
authority has two aspects: one aspect is corrective relating to its
interventions to restore and maintain normal, competitive environments, and a second,
preventive aspect, related to its interventions that significantly prevent unfair
competition on the market.
STRUCTURE
According to the law, the
Council (Board - the making decision body of the Competition Council) - is a collegial
body, formed by 7 members:
- one
President;
- two Vice-presidents;
- four Competition Councillors.
The Competition Council's
members are appointed for a five years mandate, based on strict professional criteria by
the President of Romania pursuant Government’s proposal, and may be re-invested only
once.. The members of the Council are totally independent in their decision-making.
Further to institutional
modifications introduced in 2004, the Competition Council set up a territorial apparatus.
At present, the Competition Council has territorial representatives in 41 counties and in Bucharest.
The attributions of the territorial representatives include, among others, the activity of
monitoring the state aid granted from the local budget, where the administration of funds
is autonomous. The territorial representatives also grant assistance in the elaboration of
the State aid schemes involving local funds and in the working out the State aid
notifications.
These institutional amendments ensure a pro-active approach of the
anti-competitive practices and of the State aid control, aiming at concentrating the
efforts on the most serious cases distorting competition, by imposing more deterrent fines
and focusing on ex officio investigations.
POWERS
Under the provisions of
the Competition Law, the Competition Council has decision making power, regulatory power,
investigative power and sanctioning power. It makes independent decisions which can be
appealed to the Bucharest Court of Appeal or further to the High Court of Cassation and
Justice and to apply sanctions. The Competition Council also issues Regulations and
Guidelines on the application of the Competition and State Aid Laws.
The Competition Council
does not intervene in practices of undertakings or association of undertakings when there
is no impact on market functioning. The Council intervenes only when the market is
distorted or risks to be distorted by deeds, practices and behaviour of undertakings
(anticompetitive agreements, abuse of dominant position or economic concentrations) or by
central or local public administration bodies. A Competition Council action is justified
as far as it prevents or sanctions the anticompetitive practices. The decisions shall be
based on an analysis of the relevant market where undertakings or products directly
compete.
According to the Law, the
Competition Council may investigate certain agreements and economic concentrations and
adopt solutions ensuring the balance between maintenance of effective competition on
markets and some other objectives, such as: improving production and distribution,
promoting technical progress, increasing competitiveness of the small and medium-sized
enterprises, promoting the interests of the consumers.
The provisions of the Law do not constitute an obstacle to
maintaining and adopting regulations in certain areas of public interests where
competition is beginning to emerge, such as telecommunications, mail, transportation and
the production and distribution of electricity. In such regulated sectors, the competition
authority and the sectoral regulators are cooperating towards maintaining a normal
competitive environment.
PROCEDURES
Through the provisions of the Competition Law, any person that may
prove a legitimate interest can intimate or submit a complaint to the Competition Council,
on deeds framing within anticompetitive practices, forbidden by Law.
The
intimations, complaints and requests regarding anticompetitive practices, the economic
concentration notifications and the applications for negative clearance received by
Competition Council are solved through a procedure which may contain, in each case,
several general stages: the examination, the performance of the investigation, the
decision making process and the control of the application of decision's measures, which
are presented in the following charts:
Art. 49 of
the Romanian Competition Law stipulates that a copy of the investigation report shall be
sent for the information of persons whose hearing had been ordered under Art.48 par.(1) at
least 30 days prior to the date of the hearing. The President of the Competition
Council may appoint experts and may authorize the initiator of the complaint or request to
be heard, upon the request of the latter, and any other individual or legal entity
claiming to possess relevant data and information necessary to establish the truth in the
case under investigation.
A copy of
the report shall be sent to the persons admitted for hearing only upon request, and if the
President of the Competition Council considers it helpful for the investigation.
The
President of the Competition Council may allow the parties involved to study the case
file at the Competition Council secretariat, and to get copies and excerpts of the
investigation papers on their own cost. No documents, data and information from the case
file, classified as state secret or confidential character, are available for study,
duplication or taking excerpts, without the President's decision.
In
investigations concerning an economic concentration, the provisions referring to file
study shall apply to the partners and directors of the companies participating in the
economic concentration, to the extent to which they can prove a legitimate interest in the
cause.
The
concerned parties may communicate in written their observation on the investigation report within a time-limit to
be established individually, having in regard the case complexity. The time limit shall
not be shorter than a month from the date they received the investigation report.
The
rapporteur appointed by the President shall submit the report to the Competition Council,
with parties’ observations, measures and, when necessary, the proposed sanctions,
together with the case file. The rapporteur will present the report in front of the Plenum
at a fixed date.
After the
hearings were ordered and, as the case may be, admitted, and after examining the parties'
observations on the investigation report, the Competition Council may decide as follows:
a) in
investigations on violations of Art.5, par.(1) or, as the case may be, of Art.6, ordered ex
officio or upon notification, to order that the anticompetitive practices found should
be stopped, to formulate recommendations, to impose special conditions and other
obligations to the parties involved, to fine the undertakings;
b) in
requests in keeping with Art.5, par.(3), to issue a motivated decision for approval or
denial of an individual exemption for the agreement, the decision by the association of
undertakings or the concerted practice at issue.
Within 30
days from receiving a notification of an economic concentration, the Competition
Council shall issue:
a)
Non-intervention decision, when concluding that the notified economic concentration is not
subject to this law;
b)
Non-objection decision, when concluding that, although the notified economic concentration
is subject to the provisions of this law, there are no serious doubts regarding the
compatibility with a normal competitive environment;
Within 5
months at the most from receiving a notification of an economic concentration, for which
the Competition Council decided to start an investigation because of doubts concerning
compatibility with a normal competitive environment, the Competition Council shall issue:
a) Negative
decision if, through the economic concentration, a dominant position is created or
consolidated;
b)
Authorization decision if, through the economic concentration, no dominant position is
created or consolidated;
c) Decision
establishing the obligations and/or conditions which must be met in order for the economic
concentration to be authorized, if it concludes that, provided these changes were done,
the economic concentration could be compatible with a normal competitive environment.
The
decisions issued shall be transmitted to the parties involved, by the Competition Council’s
Secretariat-General, and shall be published in the Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, at
the expense of the perpetrator or of the applicant, as the case may be, or on the
Competition Council’s website.
In order to ensure the
transparency of the Competition Council activity, the website of the Competition Council (www.competition.ro) was re-organized
and conceived not only as a presentation tool but as an interface with the public at
large. The website is more user-friendly, permanently up-dated with relevant information
(available in Romanian/English versions) regarding:
role and attributions of the Competition Council
legislative framework
decisions adopted by the Plenum
overview of the international and European activities
documents elaborated by the Competition Council’s experts
press releases
job opportunities
links to other Competition Authorities and important organizations.
In the same
time, by accessing the Competition Council website, any interested party may submit any
information related to anticompetitive practices, or comments and contributions on the website’s
newly established forum, notify economic concentrations, request dispenses and
other information that are in the Competition Council’s area of interest.
In order to
further increase the Competition Council’s degree of availability and openness to the
public at large, a free phone line was launched. Thus, information on
competition issues can be obtained and the competition authority can be informed about
potential anticompetitive practices.
An
increased knowledge on the existing Competition legislative framework of all institutions
and parties involved will finally contribute to an efficient enforcement record of the
competition rules.
For more information:
Available documents:
The Competition Law No.21/1996 and Law on State Aid No. 143/July 27, 1999,
as well as all relevant secondary legislation in the antitrust and State aid field are
available to the public on the Competition Council’s website.
Access to Competition
Council’s files
Order
No. 78/2006 brings into force the Guidelines regarding the access rules to Competition
Council files, in cases related to art. 5 and 6 of Competition Law 21/1996, and in cases
of economic concentrations.
The
right of access to file is provided by art. 44 par 2-4 of Competition Law 21/1996,
republished, according to which the parties in question may consult the file and obtain
copies and extracts of the documents of investigation proceedings, after the transmission
of the investigation report and before the date of the hearings.
The
access to Competition Council’s files is deemed to ensure the exercise of the right
of defence against the conclusions and proposals in investigation reports. For this
purpose, the access is insured, upon request, for individuals, economic agents and for
associations of economic agents.
The
guidelines also establish the information for which access is cleared, when the access is
permitted and the procedure to follow to achieve this purpose.
