Clifford Chance Badea and Stoica & Associates have successfully represented Orange Romania before the High Court of Cassation and Justice in a dispute with Romania's Competition Council concerning a EUR 13.5 million fine it had issued the company in the investigation of an alleged abuse of dominant position.
According to the firms' joint statement, the case "involved an extremely interesting legal debate with several novelties about the emerging value-added services industry and its merging with the telecommunications industry. The Competition Council's decision to fine Orange Romania was announced in January 2019, following a three-year investigation – and concerned an alleged limitation of access for a value-added services aggregator to short numbers in the telecom operator's own network."
"After four years of litigation, the High Court of Cassation and Justice confirmed the decision handed down by the Bucharest Court of Appeal – namely the full annulment of the sanction imposed by the Romanian competition authority – after the High Court of Cassation and Justice had also ruled to suspend the enforcement of the competition authority's decision, in 2020," the firms reported.
"This jurisprudence, through its value of principle, will contribute to the orientation of the Competition Council's activity and to the strengthening of its role as guardian of the rules of the free market economy, based on private property," Clifford Chance Badea and Stoica & Associates announced.
The Orange Romania in-house team included General Counsel Milena Horvat and Corporate and Technology Legal Division Manager Andrei Brujan.
The Clifford Chance Badea team included Counsel Simona Neagu, Of Counsel Eleonora Udroiu, and Senior Associate Vicu Buzac.
The Stoica & Associates team included Founding Partner Valeriu Stoica, Senior Partner Dan-Rares Raducanu, and Senior Associate Constantin-Cosmin Pintilie.