In its judgment of the 13th of May 2020, the General Court dismissed the actions for annulment brought by three airlines against the Commission’s Decision of the 29th of July 2016 establishing that the implementing rules on State aid granted by the Autonomous Region of Sardinia to the airports on the island, given in order to increase the air traffic of the area, are incompatible with the internal market.

Under the special conditions we are experiencing - health crisis and state of emergency - the Government has recently decided to amend the Criminal Code by emergency ordinance, in order to criminalize previously qualified acts as contraventions.
Thus, the Emergency Ordinance no. 28 of 18 March 2020 for amending and completing Law no. 286/2009 on the Criminal Code was adopted by the Government in the meeting last week and was published on Friday, 20 March 2020, in the Official Journal no. 228/2020.

On 19.03.2020, Attorney General Juliane Kokott presented his conclusions in the case C-81/19, Șerban vs. Banca Transilvania SA, which is in the role of the Court of Justice of the European Union, having as its object, once again, the protection of consumers against the abusive clauses inserted in the credit agreements in foreign currency.

By the decision of reference dated on 27.12.2018, the Cluj Court of Appeal, the Second Civil Section, ordered the referral of the Court of Justice of the European Union with the request for a preliminary ruling on the following questions regarding the interpretation of Directive 93/13 / CEE, respectively consumer protection against abusive clauses inserted in foreign currency credit agreements:

On the 18th of October 2018, in legal affair C-301/17, European Commission v. Romania, the Court of Justice of the European Union decided that by failing to comply with regarding the 68 landfills concerned in the case, the obligation to take all necessary measures to close as soon as possible, in accordance with article 7 letter (g) and article 13 of the Council Directive 1999/31/EC of April 26, 1999 on the landfills of waste, those landfills which, in accordance with Article 8 of that Directive, have not been authorized to continue to operate, Romania has not fulfilled its obligations under article 14 letter (b) of Directive 1999/31, in conjunction with article 13 of the same act.

In the forced execution procedure of a judgment pronounced by Judecătoria Sectorului 1 București, pursuant to Regulation no. 261/2004, we have recently learned that Alitalia - Società Aerea Italiana S.P.A. is in insolvency.

Thus, the ministerial decree of the 2nd of May 2017 ordered the opening of the special administration procedure and the appointment of a commission of special administrators for Alitalia as a result of the finding that this airline has entered insolvency. According to the report of the Italian Minister for Economic Development as the basis of the aforementioned decree, Alitalia had, on the 28th of February 2017, current liabilities of 2.3 billion euros and current assets of 921 million euros. The request to open the insolvency proceedings was filed by the Alitalia airline on the 2nd of May 2017.

Political relations are pretty clear between the European Union and Iran. Not long ago, there were restrictive measures imposed by the EU against the state of Iran, measures that followed the sanctions established on Iran by the United Nations Security Council with regard to the nuclear field. For the most part, it was forbidden to trade different categories of goods and services (weapons, products for processing uranium, certain computer programmes etc.).

The Court of Justice of the European Union has issued a new judgment in favour to the consumers who have contracted bank loans. Thus, on the 20th of September 2018, the Luxembourg court ruled in legal affair C-51/17, OPT Bank Nyrt. and OTP Faktoring Követeléskezelő Zrt./Teréz Ilyés and Emil Kiss, in which it stated that the unfairness of an unclear contractual term that places the exchange rate risk on the borrower's account and which does not reflect acts of law can be subject to judicial review.

In its judgment, the Court of Justice recalls that the rule excluding from the scope of the Directive the contractual terms which reflect laws or administrative provisions is justified by the legitimate presumption that the national legislator has established a balance between all the rights and liabilities of the parties to the contract.

We are pleased to announce that our team will expand soon. Alexandra Tomuța passed the entrance exam in the Arad Bar and will be a trainee lawyer in our company. Alexandra has already gained academic experience in one year of study in the Netherlands. She has also published in the field of tax law and quickly joined our team during an internship. We congratulate her for the special result and we are waiting for her with us. We wish her much success in the most beautiful legal profession!

Recently, Law no. 212/2018 modified Law no. 554/2004 on Administrative Litigation. We have drawn up, in the following, a synthesis of the main novelties in the matter.

It is to be noted that a significant change occured by redistributing the substantive jurisdiction of the courts according to the value of the case. For example, by amending article 10 of Law no. 554/2004, it is stipulated that the Tribunal judges in substance the disputes concerning the administrative acts issued or concluded by the local and county public authorities

The simplification of tax legislation enters a new stage, following recent legal changes regarding the payment of current tax liability. It is to be noted that, in this context, by the end of June 2018, taxpayers are to make multiple payments into different Treasury accounts: value-added tax (VAT); social security liabilities amounts; amounts due to the state budget.

The Court of Justice of the European Union has decided, based on its judgment from the 27th of June 2018 in cases SGI (C 459/17) and Valériane SNC (C 460/17) vs. Ministre de l’Action et des Comptes publics, that Article 17 of the Sixth Council Directive 77/388/EEC of 17 May 1977 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to turnover taxes — Common system of value-added tax: uniform basis of assessment, as amended by Council Directive 91/680/EEC of 16 December 1991, must be interpreted as meaning that, in order to deny a taxable person in receipt of an invoice the right to deduct the VAT appearing on that invoice, it is sufficient that the authorities establish that the transactions covered by that invoice have not actually been carried out.

Law no. 150/2018 has modified article 204 of the Tax Procedure Code by establishing new rules with regard to the delayed payment of certain tax obligations that influence the maintaining of an authorisation, approval or another similar administrative act.