The year 2019 brought more intense political pressure on the Competition Council, but also aggression from the business environment, and it all culminated with a multinational, who publicly threatened the institution, and also did that privately, in the office, said on Tuesday the president of the competition authority, Bogdan Chiriţoiu.

“The year 2019 had a very intense activity, many things went well. We had a good speed in the management of economic concentrations, although their number was higher than in previous years. Our performance in the courts was good. The number of sanctions, although not our goal and we are not happy to give them, is similar to the one of the previous year. What seems to me to have gone worse last year is the degree of aggression we encountered, the higher pressure on the institution.

”We have the political pressure, which has been clearly more intense than in other years. It is not surprising, it saddens us, but it does not surprise us. We see aggressiveness from the business environment, whether we are talking about older companies, with habits from the 90s, when they started on the road, but we see this kind of behavior also from companies in new industries, which I found strange. We have young people, new, of which we were expecting to behave as in the 21st century, without the issues of the transitional period. It all culminated with a multinational who went out in public and threatened the Competition Council, which also did privately, in my office,” said Chiriţoiu, quoted by Agerpres.

He added that, in his view, such behaviors are not tolerated in the countries where these foreign companies come from. “I doubt that this kind of behavior is tolerated in the countries where these companies come from. From my point of view, it is counterproductive and sends a bad message to the company. When we are dealing with foreign investors, we expect to bring, alongside capital, technology and know-how, also a different ethics,” stressed the head of the Competition Council.