The Competition Council, the main institution that watches over the competitive framework in a market economy is looking for allies to identify cartels even among those that are part of them, as denouncing such an illegal understanding is supposed to be rewarded by immunity to fines or by a fine reduction.
This step, now only a draft, is already operational inside the European Union, experts in this field say.
The role of the competition authorities is extremely important, as they can endorse or not economic concentrations on a market or enforce very large fines when finding violations of the regulations in effect. .
US-based Microsoft Corp. has recently been fined with almost 500 million euros by the EU's antitrust authorities. The European Commission was also the one that rejected the over $45bn merger project between two American industrial giants, General Electric and Honeywell a few years back, albeit the US antitrust authorities had sanctioned it.
"The Competition Council draft does not include a shocking measure, as this is already working in the EU. The EU encourages companies to 'tell on' each other in order to spot cartels and it works because it helps avoid harsh fines," said Lucian Augustin Bondoc, a lawyer with the Bucharest office of British Linklaters law firm.
The draft passed by the Competition Council plenum last week allows granting immunity to fines or fine reduction for that economic operator which is involved in an illegal agreement distorting competition and is the first to produce proof that allows the Council to open an investigation.
To that end, the economic operator must co-operate "fully, continually and promptly with the competition authority, give up participation and not do anything to coerce other economic operators to take part in the allegedly illegal activity."
Fines in Romania, as within the EU, may go up to - depending on how serious the competition regulation infringements are, 10% of the annual turnover in case of a agreement on tariffs between producers, for instance.
Cartel-like agreements on prices were the reasons why accusations were brought against three producers on the cement market - Lafarge (France), HeidelbergCement (Germany), Holcim (Switzerland), but they rejected such claims. A Competition Council investigation is pending in this case at the moment.
"The largest fine so far was levied against RomTelecom, $15-$20 million for an unfair competition agreement, but Greek shareholder OTE challenged the decision, as it covered a situation in the period when the State was still the owner of the company, " Bondoc said, adding most of the fines enforced so far had not exceeded 15,000 euros.
adrian.mirsanu@zf.ro
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