Supreme Court of Justice Rules on Jurisdiction over Competition Disputes
The Competition Council of Moldova is the public authority ensuring enforcement of the legislation in the domain of competition, state aid and advertising. The decisions of the Competition Council may be appealed in a court of law. However, there is a problem with such appeals.
The issue is that as per the Competition Law disputes with the Competition Council are falling under the jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal. As per the Code of Civil Procedure, the lower courts of the first instance are the courts having jurisdiction to solve such disputes.
Such situation results in uncertainty among legal practitioners and significant delays in examination of the competition disputes. For instance, the examinations of legal cases, initiated by the insurance companies fined for unfair competition back in 2014, did not yet start, while the Court of Appeal and the Chisinau court of first instance are tossing away the cases to each other, arguing lack of jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court of Justice of Moldova is now eager to solve this conflict of laws.
In order to address the confusion, the Supreme Court of Justice issued two injunction orders, in April and July this year, stating that the lower courts of the first instance shall have jurisdiction to examine the claims against the Competition Council. The Supreme Court concluded that the rules of the Code of Civil Procedure prevail over the rules of Competition Law. This conclusion mirrors the recent reform in the Moldovan judiciary system that made the lower courts of the first instance competent to examine all disputes against any public authority, notwithstanding its hierarchy in the public system.
We hope the rulings of the Supreme Court of Justice will solve the existing confusion. However, we also anticipate that the debates on this topic will continue, as long as the Competition Law will not be amended correspondingly to be in line with the Code of Civil Procedure.
For additional information on Competition Law regulations in Moldova or legal advice on your business needs, please contact Carolina Parcalab, Head of the Competition Service Line of ACI Partners Law Office.
ACI Partners
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