Competition Council gives green light to snitching on business partners

The Competition Council has granted the first 'pardon' in the case of a cartel type agreement, by forgiving someone involved in this deal, which he subsequently denounced. This type of arrangement called 'conditional offer', initiated in September 2009, involves telling on partners involved in serious deals that breach competition rules, thus benefitting from total or partial absolution from the part of the Council, depending on how soon you go to competition inspectors. "You come to us with elements that can help us catch others, and we do not punish you. Pardon can be total, if you come first, or partial, namely we cut your fine by 50%, if you come second. For the time being, we have struck the first agreement of this type," Bogdan Chitoiu, chairman of the Competition Council, told ZF yesterday. The Council's fines can go as high as 10% of a company's turnover. The biggest fine the Council imposed related to a cartel-type price fixing agreement among the main cement producers in Romania, Lafarge Romcim SA, Holcim (Romania) and Carpatcement Holding SA. The fine topped 28m euros. This happened in 2005.