Aviva Pensii was fined 422,868 lei (EUR96,739).
Competition Council officials told MEDIAFAX they plan to challenge the appellate court’s ruling before the High Court of Justice.
In August 2010, the Competition Council fined 14 mandatory pension funds a total of 5.2 million lei (EUR1.19 million), after they were found to have agreed to breach the rules on the distribution of contributors to two or more mandatory private pension funds. They should have been assigned to the pension funds randomly, but the administrators split these contributors between themselves, Council president Bogdan Chiritoiu said at the time.
According to the Council’s data, almost 80,000 people have signed up to more than one private pension fund.
The fine was 10% of the value of assets managed by each company at the end of 2009, which was RON2.38 billion. At the end of 2011, the funds’ net assets are worth RON6.42 billion and more than 5.5 million people contribute to the private pension funds.
Nine companies, each managing one fund, currently operate on the mandatory private pension market. In the case of fund administrators who were part of the agreement but no longer in business on the segment, the liability passes to their legal successor.
The largest fine was given to ING Pensii – RON1.573 million, followed by Allianz-Tiriac Pensii – RON1.259 million and Generali Pensii – RON474,333. The other administrators were penalized as follows: Aviva Pensii – RON422,868, BCR Pensii – RON391,809, Eureko Pensii – RON382,215, Alico Pensii (formerly AIG Pensii) – RON293,443, BRD Pensii – RON165,911, Aegon Pensii – RON150,301, Omega Interconsult SRL (succeeding OTP Pensii) – RON58,699, KD Real Management Solution SRL (succeeding KD Pensii) – RON21,839, Prima Pensii – RON13,713, TBIH Management Services SRL (succeeding Omniasig Pensii) – RON4,748 and IMO Property Investments (succeeding Bancpost Pensii) – RON1,815.
ING Pensii, Allianz-Tiriac Pensii, Aviva Pensii, BCR Pensii, Eureko Pensii and BRD Pensii challenged the Competition Council’s decision and requested the fine be suspended or cancelled. Alico Pensii, Generali Pensii and Aegon Pensii asked the court to cancel the fine.
BRD Pensii was refunded bail in the amount of RON49,773.30 and its fine was reduced from RON165,911 to RON45,156, through two appellate court rulings – in May and December 2011.
Eureko Pensii was refunded bail in the amount of RON114,664.50, through a June 2011 ruling, while ING Pensii was refunded RON472,057.20. However, the court rejected both their requests for the annulment of the Competition Council’s decision, through rulings in June 2011 (for Eureko) and in February 2012 (for ING).
In October 2011, the court threw out Allianz-Tiriac Pensii’s case against the Council’s decision and issued a similar ruling in the case of Generali Pensii, in December the same year.
Earlier this year, the court admitted BCR Pensii’s request for the annulment of the Council’s decision, after a similar ruling for Aegon Pensii, in September 2011. (EUR1=RON4.3712).