COMPETITION COUNCIL 2013 ANNUAL REPORT ANNUAL REPORT 2013 CONTENTS FOREWORD ............................................................................................................................ 3 THE ROLE OF THE COMPETITION COUNCIL ...................................................................... 5 THE PLENUM OF THE COMPETITION COUNCIL ................................................................. 6 THE IMPACT OF THE COMPETITION COUNCIL’S ACTIVITY ON NATIONAL ECONOMY ........ 7 CHAPTER 1. ENFORCEMENT OF THE COMPETITION RULES ......................................... 14 New investigations ................................................................................................................... 15 Finalised investigations ........................................................................................................... 17 Case studies ............................................................................................................................ 20 Investigations in progress ........................................................................................................ 24 Dawn raids ............................................................................................................................... 26 Economic concentrations ......................................................................................................... 26 Fines ........................................................................................................................................ 27 Decisions ................................................................................................................................. 28 Fighting and preventing bid rigging ......................................................................................... 28 CHAPTER 2. CASES SOLVED BY THE LEGAL COURTS ................................................... 31 Bid rigging within the tender organised by Transgaz ............................................................... 32 The insulin Case – the situation of the distributor Mediplus Exim SRL ................................... 34 CHAPTER 3. ADAPTING THE LEGAL FRAMEWORK TO THE COMPETITION RULES ....... 37 Changing the law on compulsory home insurance against earthquakes, landslides and floods ............................................................................................................... 38 The legislative proposal regarding the establishment and operation of industrial parks .................................................................................................................... 40 CHAPTER 4. STATE AID ........................................................................................................ 42 State aid cases finalised or “unblocked” in 2013 ..................................................................... 44 Trends in State aid granting .................................................................................................... 47 The Impact “Study of the State aid for the undertakings operating in industrial parks in Romania” ................................................................................................ 49 The multiannual project: Impact Study - "Identification of the State aid measures granted for the Services of General Economic Interest in Romania " - heat supplying services in Romania ............................................................................................................................... 49 Preparing accessing EU funds in the 2014-2020 programming period 2014-2020 ................ 50 www.competition.ro 1 2013 ANNUAL REPORT CHAPTER 5. COMBATING UNFAIR COMPETITION ........................................................... 52 CHAPTER 6. THE RAILWAY SUPERVISION COUNCIL (RSC) ........................................... 56 New legislation and new members of the RSC ....................................................................... 57 Meetings of the RSC ............................................................................................................... 57 Cooperation activities ............................................................................................................. 58 RCS priorities for 2014 ............................................................................................................ 59 CHAPTER 7. INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITY ............................................................................ 60 ECN and European Affairs ....................................................................................................... 61 Bilateral relations ..................................................................................................................... 62 Cooperation with international bodies in competition field ...................................................... 63 CHAPTER 8. PROMOTING THE COMPETITION RULES ..................................................... 65 Cooperation protocols with other institutions ........................................................................... 66 Public consultation ................................................................................................................... 66 Relation with mass-media ........................................................................................................ 66 The Centre for studies on the competition law ........................................................................ 68 Presentation of the 2012 Annual Report of the Competition Council ...................................... 68 Launching of the Annual Report on Competition .................................................................... 69 CHAPTER 9. ORGANISATION AND RESOURCES OF THE COMPETITION COUNCIL ........... 70 Organisation ............................................................................................................................ 71 Budget and budgetary execution ............................................................................................. 72 The projects carried out by the institution ................................................................................ 74 Human resources ................................................................................................................... 79 CHAPTER 10. PRIORITIES FOR 2014 .................................................................................. 85 CHAPTER 11. STATISTICS .................................................................................................... 88 I. Enforcement of the competition legislation ........................................................................... 89 II. Binding opinions, points of view, opinions and interventions concerning the issue / amendment of normative acts ................................................................................................. 94 III. Statistics on the Competition Council’s court dossiers ...................................................... 107 IV. Formal opinions in the State aid field issued by the Competition Council in 2013 ........... 110 V. Promoting actions ............................................................................................................... 113 VI. Financial and human resources of the Competition Council ............................................. 115 2 www.competition.ro ANNUAL REPORT 2013 FOREWORD In 2013, we managed to achieve a number of important objectives. We focused particularly on investigating the most severe forms of competition law infringement, namely cartels, including within public tendering procedures. Thus, approximately 60% of the cases triggered in 2013 have targeted such anti-competitive practices. We have also completed (with significant penalties) the cartel case on the market for waste management of electrical and electronic equipment and the bid rigging on the armament market. The market monitoring activity was intensified, which has resulted in the initiation of a significant number of sector inquiries, targeting areas important to consumers, such as pharmaceuticals, electronic communications, healthcare or vehicle insurances. At the same time, we have completed the sector inquiries on card payment services, construction of roads and highways, distribution of movies in cinemas and beer market. The conclusions of the sector inquiry on the market for card payment services have been the basis of discussion with market stakeholders – the Romanian Government – the Ministry of Public Finances, the National Bank of Romania, commercial banks and retailers - in order to reduce the fees for card payments. Limiting the fees will generate in some extent benefits for merchants, some of which will be passed on to consumers through lower sale prices. Another very important objective we accomplished in 2013 is to increase the role of the economic analysis in both law infringement investigations as well as in monitoring of markets. Two of the most important examples are: the analysis carried out for the Auchan/Real merger case completed by undertaking commitments and the ex-post assessment of the effects of the takeover of Lidl over Plus. For the first time, in 2013, we have built and applied an aggregate index of competitive pressure for some economic sectors. The results were published in the “Competition Developments in Key Sectors Report” and were subject to public debate. Regarding the law courts, the percentage of fines retained as definitive, as well as those retained as irrevocable,