The Competition Council definitively won the case of abuse of dominant position by “Apă – Canal Chișinău” JSC. In September 2019, the Council found that “Apă – Canal Chișinău” JSC illegally applied arbitrary and differentiated coefficients when setting tariffs/additional payments for exceeding the maximum allowable concentrations in discharged wastewater, including by not collecting additional payments from some of the active enterprises in Chisinau Municipality and Ialoveni Town.
The Competition Council has determined, by the Decision as of 13.09.2019, that these actions constitute an infringement of the provisions of Article 11 para. (1) and (2) letter c) of the Competition Law No. 183/2012 and constitute an abuse of a dominant position. The decision has been challenged in court. On 18.05.2022, the Supreme Court of Justice definitively confirmed the legality and the merits of the decision given by the Competition Council.
A fine of 7 190 453.43 MDL was imposed and collected to the State budget for the found infringement. Therewith, “Apă – Canal Chișinău” JSC was ordered to remedy the infringement found by the Competition Council and to report quarterly on the actions taken.
For more details, visit the links:
Decision of the Plenum of the Competition Council: https://competition.md/public/files/Decizia-Apa-Canal6b4a5.pdf
Decision of the Supreme Court of Justice: http://jurisprudenta.csj.md/search_col_civil.php?id=66673
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