Leaua Damcali Deaconu Paunescu and LALIVE have successfully represented the interests of Romania before ICSID, which on March 5 rejected claims against Romania amounting to over RON 9 billion brought by Ioan and Viorel Micula.
ICSID also ordered the claimants to reimburse Romania for 75% of legal and other costs as well as the costs of the arbitration.
According to LDDP, the claims were brought by the Miculas and "and several companies associated with them,” including S.C. Scandic Distilleries. According to the firm, “the award concludes an arbitration initiated by the claimants in 2014 on the basis of the Agreement between the Kingdom of Sweden and Romania on the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments. In the arbitration, the Claimants alleged that Romania had breached its international obligations under the treaty by failing to adequately enforce its laws on the taxation of spirits, and by enacting a new pricing regime for mineral water. In its award, however, the tribunal ruled that the Claimants had not established that Romania had failed to enforce its taxation laws with respect to spirits."
ICSID found that “Romania has engaged in ‘serious and visible’ efforts to enforce its taxation laws in relation to alcohol.” According to the tribunal, Romania “has established that it has a sophisticated mechanism for the enforcement of its laws, a strategy of ensuring that enforcement is cost-effective and a structure for enforcement at both the household producer and industrial producer levels, involving ANAF, Customs, and DG Anti-Fraud.”
Also, LLDP reports that “the tribunal further ruled that it lacked jurisdiction to consider the Claimant’s claims relating to the pricing regime for mineral water, on the basis that the regime had been enacted before the Treaty came into force in 2003.”
Leaua Damcali Deaconu Paunescu’s team included Managing Partners Crenguta Leaua and Stefan Deaconu, Department Managing Partner Gheorghe Matei, Senior Partners Marius Grigorescu and Mihaela Maravela, Senior Associate Raluca Popa, and Attorney Sofia Cozac.
LALIVE's team included Partners Veijo Heiskanen and Matthias Scherer, Counsels Laura Halonen and Sam Moss, Associates Alptug Tokeser and Juliette Asso, and Knowledge Manager Tessa Hayes.