Speaking at the conference Mediafax Talks about Competition, Chiritoiu said the amendments brought to the competition law, which has taken effect this Thursday, were the result of the collaboration with the World Bank and the American Chamber of Commerce in Romania, or AmCham.
“We expect our collaboration with the World Bank will resume this fall to implement an action plan, which refers mainly to possible management changes, as well as to improve the law, considering there were two or three interesting aspects the Parliament did not approve,” said Chiritoiu.
Under the new competition law, the Government may block company takeover operations if the country’s defense council CSAT believes such moves threaten national security.
The Prosecutor’s Office will be able to investigate anticompetitive crimes without being notified by the Competition Council, and prosecutors and competition inspectors will run their inquiries at the same time.
Another new provision says that if a company explicitly admits to having committed an anticompetitive act and, where applicable, proposes remedies, this will be noted as a mitigating circumstance and the fine will be 10%-30% lower.