The Romanian Competition Council Never Rings Twice. Not Even When Abroad

"To our big surprise representatives from the Romanian Competition Authority arrived at our offices in Brussels on [date] and were joined by the Belgian police and the Belgian Competition Authority", reads the press release of a foreign-based investigated party raided by the Romanian authority.

This is how it all starts: with a ring at the door

We can only imagine how big the surprise must be when you find out that your Belgium-based office is being raided in an investigation by the Romanian Competition Authority. But it is a fact that the Romanian Competition Council (the "RCC") got a taste of cross-border raids.

In the past, several foreign-based companies had been subject to investigations (and some of them ultimately fined), but the investigation methods used to be milder. The foreign-based company merely received requests for information, while national companies were thoroughly inspected. Starting in early 2017, the RCC literally went beyond the frontier: