In 2023, the Competition Council charged fines worth over 37 million lei and completed 15 investigations on anti-competitive practices and unfair competition actions
This was said during the examination in Parliament of the Report on the activity of the Competition Council last year. According to the document, the Competition Council completed 15 investigations into anti-competitive practices and unfair competition actions in 2023. The data shows that 3 cases were anti-competitive agreements and 4 were abuse of dominant position. Also, 3 investigations concerned unfair competition actions and 2 cases were anti-competitive actions of public authorities. As a result, the plenary session of the Competition Council decided to charge fines worth 37 million 216 thousand lei. It should be noted that in 2023, fines worth more than 10 million lei were examined and paid. At the same time, last year, the Competition Council initiated 16 new investigations related to different fields of activity or types of violations examined. Similarly, in the field of state aid, 34 applied support measures were decided. 30 of them applied for permission, and four found that the declared support measures did not constitute state aid. In 2023, there were 62 investigations into anti-competitive practices and unfair competition actions. The decision approved by Parliament contains a number of recommendations to the Competition Council. These include taking a more proactive stance on the existing problems on the economic market; clearly defining the areas and key sectors of the economy to be analyzed by the agency; digitalization of processes; adopting European best practices in this field; conducting information and education campaigns for businesses and the general public on the benefits of fair competition, etc. // 19.07.2024 - InfoMarket.
