The bill has been drafted by the Competition Council and put up for public debate until January 31.
One of the crimes punishable under the bill is selling the results of experiments which required significant human or financial effort, or of related secret information, which have been sent to the relevant authorities to request sale authorization for pharmaceutical products or chemical products destined for agriculture, which contain new chemical compounds.
It will also be illegal to disclose information on these experiments, except when it would be necessary for public safety, or when measures are in place to protect the information from unfair commercial use.
The bill also punishes the disclosure, purchase or use of trade secrets by third parties without the consent of their legal owner, as a result of corporate espionage.
Such crimes shall be punished by six months to five years in prison, or a fine of 20,000 – 200,000 lei (EUR4600-46000), and associated penalties may also be enforced, such as prohibiting the guilty party from holding a position of management or partner in the company, or barring the company’s activity for up to two years.
Under the bill, slandering competitors or their services by spreading false information is also unfair competition, as is spreading inaccurate or incomplete information about one’s own activity, in order to acquire an advantage over the competition, or destabilizing a company’s activity by leading its employees, suppliers, clients or other interested parties to breach their contractual obligations.
A further breach of the bill will be hijacking a company’s clients by a former employee or associate, by using confidential information, as well as providing products or services for a special price if the client undertakes to bring other clients to the same business, when this is not done transparently.
Acts of unfair competition shall be punished by fines of 0.3-3% of the previous year’s total turnover or revenue, or a fine of RON1,000-20,000 in the case of natural persons. For companies, the fine cannot be lower than RON5,000. (EUR1=RON4.298)