Thought Articles

Reprinted from the Comparative Law Yearbook of International Business, Volume 41, 2019, October 2019, Pag. 143-156, with permission of Kluwer Law International. For more than 10 years now, Romanian legal literature has been concerned with the relationship between criminal and tax law, the violation of the ne bis in idem principle, and the inconsistency of coexisting regulations on the two incumbent proceedings — in tax matters and in criminal matters — when charges, duties, or taxes owed to the government budget are evaded. Although codes have been modified in both fields and the Law on Preventing and Fighting Tax Evasion has been amended, nothing relevant has happened, and the same confusing rules are largely being maintained. However, significant increases have been provided for both the punishment of the tax evasion offense stipulated in Article 9 of Law Number 241/2005 (the most frequently violated piece of legislation) and the tax charges under Law Number 207/2015 on the Tax Procedure Code.

It is our great pleasure to present our publication Preventive Guidelines on Substantive Criminal Law to you, comprising a set of preventive measures for a better management of the risk of collision with criminal law. Edited by our team of lawyers specialising in Criminal Law and Corporate Crime, this guide aims at outlining those provisions of domestic criminal law that are relevant to the activity of business entities, such as: (i) the Norms governing corporate law and the economic activity in general; (ii) the regulation, from a criminal law perspective, of specific areas such as public procurement, employment, insolvency, taxation, etc.; (iii) the specific elements of the criminal liability of the legal entity, held liable either distinctly or jointly with the individual acting as its representative or agent; (iv) solutions given by the doctrine and the courts to the topics in each section.

This Article was originally published in Issue 6 of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. A review of the Romanian pharma market reveals the real challenges faced by pharmaceutical companies and the impact of those challenges on patients. Whereas the funding shortage affecting the healthcare sector – particularly the medicines budget – is not specific to Romania, the lack of coherent and efficient mid- and long-term health policies, as well as restrictive and unpredictable pharma laws, have unfortunately been a consistent feature of the country’s pharma market over the years. As a result, industry players encounter difficulties in drawing up multiannual (or even annual) budgets, and on patients’ access to essential therapies.

This Article was originally published in Issue 5 of the CEE Legal Matters Magazine. The Romanian farming sector is characterized mostly by small farms (92.2% of the holdings are less than five hectares in size), with a growing number of extremely large farms especially in the most fertile regions close to the Danube river. Therefore, a large part of the agricultural land needs consolidation for more efficient management and higher returns. However, investors are sometimes reluctant to plunge into agri-business, generally because of some combination of the following: (i) some agricultural land is state property; (ii) limitations exist on the purchase of agricultural land by certain categories of foreigners; (iii) sale and purchase procedures may become too intricate due to legal pre-emption rights; and (iv) they fear they will not be allowed to build on or change the purpose of agricultural land.

At a global scale, trends in the financial sector are undoubtedly oriented towards digitalization. By employing new technologies, financial institutions are striving to meet clients’ surging demand for contracting financial services via digital channels. In other words, the spotlight is turning from branch-proximity to digital-technology, as the use of paper-based documentation and the need for clients to be present in person when contracting financial services are shrinking. Switching to digital services has generated the need for a legal framework that would increase consumer confidence in remote means of negotiation and conclusion of contracts for financial services.

Multilaw has released the ‘International FinTech Guide’ which presents the legal and economic conditions for FinTech businesses across more than 20 different countries. Our Banking & finance team authored the Romania chapter providing an overview of the legal requirements and barriers with respect to Virtual Currencies, ICOs, RegTech, InsurTech, Robo-Advisory, Online Banking and Crowdfunding.