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Regional Competition Law Update – Q3 2025
Kinstellar’s Competition & FDI team is pleased to present the Q3 2025 update to our Regional Competition Review. This latest edition provides a snapshot of recent enforcement activity, legislative changes, and emerging trends across Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine. Key highlights include the introduction of new “call-in” powers in Bulgaria, as well as proposed and newly implemented FDI regimes in Croatia and Ukraine, alongside a range of developments that are reshaping competition and FDI control across the region, such as: Austria – Enforcement and energy market focus Czech Republic – Merger remedies, sector inquiries, and cartel fines Romania
EU FDI Screening: Insights from the Commission’s 5th Annual Report and what they mean for CEE
The European Commission published its fifth annual report on the screening of foreign direct investment (FDI) into the EU accompanied by a Staff Working Document. The report covers developments during 2024 and provides an overview of FDI screening across the EU, the evolution of national screening mechanisms, and emerging investment trends highlighting both the EU’s ongoing openness to foreign investors and its efforts to strengthen safeguards for security and public order. While the EU-27 continued to attract significant investment FDI inflows slowed in 2023 and 2024 due to a decline in greenfield investments, even as mergers and acquisitions began to recover unevenly across Member States and sectors. By the end of
Kinstellar announces leadership appointments across firmwide Sectors and Service Lines
Kinstellar is delighted to announce several leadership appointments across our Service Lines and Sectors: Horst Ebhardt (Office Managing Partner, Vienna) has been appointed Co-Head of the M&A, Corporate and Private Equity Service Line, alongside Jan Juroška (Prague Office Managing Partner), Cătălin Graure (Counsel, Bucharest) will serve as Head of the firm-wide Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Screening Service Line, and Barbara Kusak (Partner, Prague) and Rusandra Sandu (Partner, Bucharest) will lead our firm-wide Consumer & Retail Sector. Horst brings 25 years of experience in private practice, specialising in complex cross-border M&A, privatisations, and restructuring
Competition Law Update in Romania: Q3 2025
The Romanian Competition Council (“RCC”) remained highly active throughout the third quarter of 2025, advancing its enforcement and policy agenda across multiple fronts. Highlights include the adoption of Romania’s first foreign direct investment (“FDI”) guidelines, the launch of a public consultation on urban utility approvals, and intensified merger control and antitrust activity across the telecom, retail and agribusiness sectors. These efforts are reinforcing the RCC’s commitment to safeguarding competition in strategically important markets. I. Latest Updates FDI Guidelines On the FDI screening front, Romania adopted its first set of investment screening guidelines (“FDI Guidelines”)
Romania adopts first set of investment screening guidelines
On 30 July 2025, Romania enacted its first set of guidelines dealing with investment screening aspects (the “Guidelines”), generally codifying authorities’ practice so far and views on particular aspects. The Guidelines were adopted by the Romanian Competition Council (“RCC”), which hosts the secretariat of the Commission for the Screening of Foreign Direct Investment (the body entrusted with carrying out the screening of investments). The RCC is also entrusted with issuing the national security clearances for non-problematic cases. A draft of the Guidelines was initially launched into public consultation by the RCC in mid-February 2025 and interested parties had until 11 March 2025 to provide feedback. The publication
Romania: Mid-year Competition Law Update
The second quarter of 2025 marked a dynamic period for competition law in Romania, driven by significant legislative developments, a surge in merger activity, and the launch of several new investigations. In this Competition Law Update, we highlight the key developments and explore their potential implications for the remainder of the year. Latest Updates Legal privilege-related amendments to Romanian Competition Law As of 26 June 2025, the Romanian Competition Council (“RCC”) operates under updated procedural rules concerning the treatment of communications claimed to be protected by legal professional privilege (“LPP”) during dawn raids. These changes stem from the enactment of Law No. 111/2025
Romania fine tunes procedure on treating allegedly privileged communication during dawn raids
The Romanian Parliament has amended Competition Law no. 21/1996 (the "Competition Law") through Law No. 111/2025 approving Government Emergency Ordinance No. 99/2024, amending and supplementing certain legislative acts in the field of competition ("Law 111/2025"). Effective 26 June 2025, the Romanian Competition Council (the "RCC") has received refined procedural guidance for handling communications claimed to be protected by legal professional privilege ("LPP") during dawn raids. Law 111/2025 amends, among others, Art. 38 paras. (9) and (11) of the Competition Law, replacing the July 2024 version, itself introduced to fix a highly questionable earlier formulation which had controversially allowed RCC inspectors to read
Dive into the latest competition law updates in Romania
In the first quarter of 2025, the Romanian Competition Council (“RCC”) published several significant decisions, launched new investigations, and imposed fines in cases involving abuse of dominant position, price coordination, and other anticompetitive practices. 1. New FDI Guidelines In February the RCC published the draft FDI guidelines (the “Guidelines”), which were up for public consultation until mid-March. The Guidelines aim to clarify the method for the calculation of the investment value in different types of transactions, such as share deals, share capital contributions, multi-jurisdictional transactions, or in case of a loan or financing by an investor. Furthermore, the Guidelines clarify
The Romanian Competition Council revamps its guidelines on issuing guidance letters
On 11 September 2024 the Romanian Competition Council’s (“RCC”) Order no. 2436/2024 implementing the Guidelines on informal guidance on novel or unresolved questions arising in individual cases concerning the application of Art. 5 and 6 of the Romanian Competition Law No. 21/1996 (the “Competition Law”) was published in the Official Gazette of Romania and entered into force (the “Guidelines”). Art. 5 and 6 of the Competition Law represent the local-law equivalents of Art. 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and deal with the prohibition of agreements that restrict competition and, respectively, abuse of dominance. The Guidelines replace the previous RCC note on the matter
Romania strengthens screening of EU investments
Further to the December 2023 amendments to the Romanian regime for screening inbound direct investments (that we previously covered here), which formally included EU investors within the scope of screening, the Romanian Parliament has adopted a new law (the “New Law”) to further strengthen the approach towards EU investors. The New Law explicitly extends to EU investors the sanctions regime previously applicable to non-EU investors. Gun jumping will be treated in the same manner regardless of the investor’s nationality, with potential sanctions of up to 10% of worldwide turnover applicable to EU and non-EU investors alike. This was not an oversight in the December 2023 amendments, but rather the government’s preferred
Kinstellar announces new promotions to Counsel
February 2024 – Kinstellar is delighted to announce the promotions to Counsel of: Yerlan Akhmetov, Kuanysh Shekerbekov (Almaty, Kazakhstan), Cătălin Dinu, Cătălin Graure (Bucharest, Romania), Barnabás Sági (Budapest, Hungary), Yulia Eismont, Maksym Tesliar (Kyiv, Ukraine), Michal Forýtek (Prague, Czech Republic), Andrijana Kaštelan, Vedran Kopilović, Marija Vuchetich (Zagreb, Croatia). ALMATY Yerlan Akhmetov focuses on banking and finance, M&A and capital markets matters. Having been with the Firm for nine years, Yerlan has earned a reputation for cultivating strong client relationships, demonstrating leadership qualities and making significant contributions to our firm's success. He has played a key role
Romania transposes the ECN+ Directive, further strengthening the Competition Council’s investigative powers
Facing EU infringement concerns, Romania has finally adopted an ordinance amending the Competition Law no. 21/1996 (the “Competition Law”), aimed at fully transposing into local law EU Directive 1/2019 to empower the competition authorities of the Member States to be more effective enforcers and to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market (the “ECN+ Directive”). This was carried out through Government Emergency Ordinance no. 108/2023 (“GEO 108/2023”), published in the Official Gazette on 6 December 2023. GEO 108/2023 goes further than merely transposing the provisions of the ECN+ Directive (as some of the principles in the directive had already been reflected under national law previously)