Abuse by "Apa - Canal Chisinau" JSC – definitively confirmed by national courts

The Competition Council has definitively won the case regarding the abuse of a dominant position on behalf of "Apa - Canal Chisinau" JSC. In September 2019, the Council found that "Apa-Canal Chisinau" JSC  illegally applied arbitrarily and differentiated the coefficients when setting additional tariffs/payments for exceeding the maximum allowable concentrations in the discharged wastewater, including by not receiving additional payments from some of the undertakings active in Chisinau mun. and Ialoveni city.

The Competition Council has established, by decision of 13.09.2019, that these actions constitute the violation of the provisions of art. 11 para. (1) and (2) lit.c) of the Competition Law no. 183/2012 and represents an abuse of a dominant position. The decision was challenged in court. On 18.05.2022, the Supreme Court of Justice definitively confirmed the legality and validity of the solution given by the Competition Council.

For the violation found, was applied and collected to the state budget, a fine in the amount of 7,190,453.43 MDL.  At the same time, the undertaking "Apa-Canal Chisinau" JSC was prescribed the removal of the violation found by the Competition Council and the quarterly information about the actions taken.

For more details go to the links:

Decision of the Plenum of the Competition Council (romanian version): https://competition.md/public/files/Decizia-Apa-Canal6b4a5.pdf

Decision of the Supreme Court of Justice (romanian version): http://jurisprudenta.csj.md/search_col_civil.php?id=66673