Summary of the Competition Council Plenum Decision No. APD-38/18-09 of 07.04.2023

Between April, 2017 – June, 2018, the Competition Council examined the actions of ,,Telautogar” LLC and ,,Gările și Stațiile Auto” SE in the light of the provisions of the Competition Law no. 183/2012. Thus, in order to ensure a consistent approach, the Competition Council proposed to check the activity of the other companies that provide services on the bus depot market.

Following the examination of the contracts for passenger and baggage road transport concluded between bus station operators and road transport operators, were detected signs of the presence of abusive clauses.

In this context, on 11.10.2018, the Competition Council Plenum ordered by Disposition No. 38 the initiation of the investigation regarding the signs of violation of Art. 11 of the Competition Law no. 183/2012 by ,,RZ-TRANSCOM” JSC, ,,Baza de Transport Auto-29” JSC, ,,Baza de Transport Auto nr. 18” JSC, ,,Pond-Trans” LLC, „Servicii Transport Auto” SE, ,,Baza de transport Auto-28” JSC and ,,Gara Nord” JSC, regarding the imposition of unfair trading conditions within the provision of bus station service to road transport operators.

During the investigation, it was found that within the limits of the administered territories, the bus station operators were holding a dominant position on the market of the bus station services in relation to the road transport operators whose starting point, transit and arrival point are the given bus stations.

Moreover, it has been found that the economic activity of road transport operators has not been affected since the penalties stipulated in the contracts for passenger and baggage road transport were not enforced by the bus station operators. Therefore, the competition in the market for paid passenger road transport services on the regular routes where road transport operators operate has not been distorted.

Thus, during the investigation, no sufficient relevant and conclusive evidence was found indicating that the bus station operators committed an abuse of dominant position.

In this regard, the Competition Council Plenum, by Decision No. APD-38/18-09 of 07.04.2023, ordered the termination of the investigation, as the action under investigation does not meet the constituent elements of the infringement provided by Art. 11 para. (1) and (2) letter a) of Competition Law no. 183/2012, and therefore does not justify the application of corrective measures or sanctions.