Competition Outlook: Will 2024 Be A Game-Changing Year For Antitrust And Foreign Investment Control In Romania?

As Carl Sagan aptly stated, "You have to know the past to understand the present." Furthermore, I would argue that knowing the past is also essential for trying to project the future. The historical landscape of antitrust and foreign direct investment ("FDI") control in Romania is, as some of you may expect, complex and, to a certain extent, even frustrating.

2023 in retrospect

Antitrust enforcement

Last year was marked by the unseen, as what had become traditional patterns of public enforcement in Romania were broken. The Romanian Competition Council (RCC) did not finalise any of its significant investigations for potential breaches last year, other than two cases closed with no sanctions, for potential market sharing concerns on the automotive paints market (opened in 2017) and road signalling instruments (opened in 2020). In exchange, the RCC opened new high-profile cases in the food (butter, sugar and sunflower seed oil), luxury goods, financial, energy,