The team of lawyers from STOICA & ASOCIAȚII, consisting of Valeriu Stoica (Founding Partner), Dan-Rareş Răducanu (Senior Partner) and Oana Zamă (Partner), succeeded on September 4, 2025, to obtain the suspension of the enforcement of a fine imposed by the Competition Council through Decision No. 100/April 15, 2025. By this Decision, four companies were fined for entering into agreements/concerted practices between 2007 and 2019 to share the market by allocating customers and/or territories on the market for the treatment and/or disposal of waste resulting from medical activities in Romania.
Following the change in shareholding, the new management of the complainant brought the previous anti-competitive practices to the attention of the Competition Council and provided the documents necessary to initiate the investigation, which began approximately eight months after that moment. Although, according to the applicable legislation, immunity from fines would have been required in such a case, the Decision imposed a significant fine on the complainant company, both in terms of the amount and the effects it would have on the overall economic situation of the sanctioned company. As a result of the ruling handed down on September 4, 2025, by the Bucharest Court of Appeal, the claimant company will no longer be required to pay the fine imposed by Competition Council Decision No. 100/April 15, 2025, until the action for annulment of that decision is resolved on its merits. The decision of the Bucharest Court of Appeal is enforceable and may be appealed within 5 days of its communication.
“The decision handed down in this case by the Bucharest Court of Appeal is a fair one. The application of a sanction, whatever it may be, to the very person who understood to denounce certain anti-competitive agreements and practices committed prior to the change of shareholding, based on his right to immunity conferred by the applicable legislation, contradicts the very purpose of leniency policies, which is to encourage companies involved in anti-competitive practices to cooperate with competition authorities, including by reporting agreements and practices that are hidden in nature. When a leniency application is rejected without a coherent and comprehensive justification, as happened in this case, the authority sends a signal of insecurity and uncertainty, and cooperation is, in fact, completely discouraged,” said Dan-Rareş Răducanu (Senior Partner).
Established in 1995, STOICA & ASOCIAȚII has gained national and international recognition in the world of law and business, through its entire activity of legal assistance and representation of a vast portfolio of clients. From its foundation to the present day, the lawyers of STOICA & ASOCIAȚII have proved to be a strong team, founded on the respect of its principles: Fidelitas, Integritas, Fortitudo. STOICA & ASOCIAȚII has acquired an excellent national and international reputation. Its professional performances are recognised in the most important legal guides: Chambers Europe, Legal 500, WTR 1000, IAM Patent 1000.
