Competition Protection Agency to have wise-men council

The first sitting of the council of the Competition Protection National Agency (CPNA) will take place later in March, Info-Prim Neo reports. Viorelia Carare, the CPNA general director, said at an informal meeting with journalists this Council was “a collegial organ with consulting functions”, comprising people delegated by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce, by the Financial Market National Commission, the National Bank, the Science Academy, the Employers Confederation, the Trade Unions Confederation, the Foreign Investors Association, as well as by other entities working in Moldova. Viorelia Carare has said that intensifying the cooperation with the civil society in strengthening an efficient-competition space in Moldova, in establishing a permanent dialog with it concerning the documents on the policies promoted by the Agency will be possible through the “public” Council. “Thus we’ll consult the council on the normative and legal acts, we are drafting, including on the new law on protecting the competition, we’ll start to work on. It is going to be a difficult process, as the provisions of the new law shall correspond to the European standards in terms of protecting competition,” she specified. The CPNA general director has yet mentioned that approving of the decisions on not observing the competition law remains the prerogative of the Agency’s Administrative Council, this being also the practice of European countries. During its first year of work (CPNA was set up in February 2007,) the Agency considered 68 cases of breaching the competition law, of which 30 on its own initiative and 38 following requests from companies. It adopted 60 decisions, issued 40 recommendations to companies to eliminate certain breaches. The cases examined concerned the areas of advertising, transport, copyright, mobile and fixed telephony, cable TV, protection services, the prices of foodstuffs in kiosks in hospitals, mailing services, civil aviation, prices of oil products. 28 cases were forwarded to courts, and in 12 cases, the court issued sanctioning decisions, 3 cases were canceled, and 12 cases are considered. Two cases are heard by the Court of Appeals: the case of Sun TV and Acces TV and the cases of the companies operating under the trademark Bomba. These cases have got wide media coverage. According to her, a strong point in the CPNA’s work in the first year was promoting the modifications to the Law on protecting the competition, under the circumstances when the Law was adopted back 2000 and many provisions lost timeliness. The modifications were okayed in the first reading and soon they will be heard in the second reading in the Parliament. “They grant adequate powers to the NCPA,” Viorelia Carare put it, including deciding powers, the right to search upon self-notification, the right to issue obligatory writs and the right to apply sanctions. Yet these modifications, after being passed by the Parliament, will be in force only until a new competition protecting law is enacted.