Are fines imposed by competition authorities taken into account by the court when calculating the award?
The Competition Council is the sole authority competent to apply fines on competition matters. The fines are calculated as a percentage of the offender’s turnover report from the previous financial year, starting from 1% and reaching 10%. Under the law, amounts representing tariffs, taxes and fines or other penalties imposed by the Competition Council represent revenues to the state budget. Fines applied by the Competition Council are taken into account by the administrative court when dealing with complaints against the decisions of this body, as described under question 1.4. Nevertheless, taking into consideration the administrative nature of the sanctions applied by the Competition Council as compared to the scope of the private law suit, the civil courts do not take into account the fines when determining the value of the compensation damages to be awarded to the plaintiff.
