Thought Articles

The reform of the Romanian pensions system is regarded as a large-scale process whereby important public and private resources are mobilised. Although some of the legal framework for the reform has been in place for several years, the private pensions system has actually become operational following some adjustments in 2007.

This chapter was first published in the PLC Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions Handbook 2008/09 and is reproduced with the permission of the publisher, Practical Law Company. 2007 was a notable year for the M&A market in Romania as a result of its accession to the EU on 1 January 2007. However, Romania is a young market economy and the legislative and the economic environments must undergo significant changes.

The fall of communism has brought significant changes in employment relations in Romania. On the one hand, changes were triggered by the transition from a centralised economy, in which the state was the only employer, to a market economy with private employers. On the other hand, employment relations were altered pursuant to Romania’s accession to the European Union, with the relevant European directives being transposed into the local legal system. Romania has transposed European Directive No 1999/70/EC, concerning the framework agreement on fixed-term work concluded by the European Trade Union Confederation, Union of Industrial and Employers’ Confederations of Europe and European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation.

The article appeared in the In-House Lawyer magazine, March 2008. The Romanian M&A market is characterised by constant growth, in line with that of the country’s economy. Milestones of the market in recent years include: UK-based Vodafone’s acquisition of a 79% share stake in the mobile operator MobiFon SA, pursuant to a $3.5bn transaction in 2005, which also included a 100% share stake in the Czech mobile operator Oskar Mobil; the privatisation of Banca Comerciala Romana SA, Romania’s largest commercial bank, following a €3.75bn offer from Austrian Erste Bank AG in 2006; and the acquisition of Rompetrol SA, a large Romanian petrol producer and retailer, by the Kazakh state-owned company KazMunaiGaz, in a $2.7bn transaction in 2007.

Reproduced with permission from Law Business Research. This article was first published in Getting the Deal Through: Dominance 2008, published in February 2008 – contributing editors Thomas Janssens and Thomas Wessely. The abusive behaviour of dominant firms is prohibited by article 6 of the Romanian Competition Law No. 21/1996 (RCL) and, since 1 January 2007, by article 82 of the EC Treaty. Article 6 expressly forbids the abusive use of a dominant position held by one or more undertakings on the Romanian market or on a substantial part of it, by resorting to anti-competitive practices that have as their object or may have as their effect the distortion of economic activities or the prejudice of consumers.

This chapter was first published in the PLC Cross-border Competition Volume 2: Leniency Handbook 2007/08 and is reproduced with the permission of the publisher, Practical Law Company. The Competition Council, Romania’s anti-trust regulatory authority, introduced a leniency policy in 2004 (see box, The regulatory authority). The Competition Council published its Guidelines on Leniency (Leniency Guidelines) on 13 May 2004. These were inspired by the European Commission’s 2002 Notice on immunity from fines and reduction of fines in cartel cases (OJ 2002C45/03) (Leniency Notice).