Jurisprudenţă

  • Detalii privind cazul
    • ID național: Bucharest Court of Appeal, Section IX for administrative and fiscal law, Judgement 988/2020
    • Statul membru: România
    • Denumire comună:N/A
    • Tipul de decizie: Decizie a Curții care face obiectul unui recurs
    • Data deciziei: 30/06/2020
    • Instanţa: Curtea de Apel București, Secția a IX-a contencios administrativ și fiscal
    • Obiect:
    • Reclamantul:
    • Pârâtul:
    • Cuvinte-cheie: Unfair commercial practices, cessation order, res judicata, judicial review
  • Articole din directivă
    Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Chapter 1, Article 4 Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Chapter 2, Section 1, Article 6 Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Chapter 4, Article 11 Unfair Commercial Practices Directive, Chapter 4, Article 13
  • Notă preliminară

    A final judgement, rendered in a separate proceeding and that already settled the issue of the fair/unfair character of a commercial practice, should be respected by the court that is seized with an action against the administrative decision ordering the termination of that practice.

  • Fapte

    The local authorities sanctioned a trader for misleading practices and ordered the cessation of the practice. The trader brought court proceedings against the contravention report and obtained a final judgement which partially annulled it and partially upheld it. Then, the trader brought proceedings trying to annul in its entirety the decision regarding the termination of practices. The Court in first instance rejected the claim and an appeal was launched.

  • Chestiune juridică

    Whether a court seized with an action against an administrative decision ordering the termination of some commercial practices is allowed to decide on the unfair character of those practices when it was already settled with a final judgement in a separate proceeding?

  • Hotărârea

    The court will evaluate the aspects finally settled (with res judicata) in the judgement that analysed the legality of the commercial practices which were the basis for the contested decisions. The positive effect of the res judicata will take the form of presumption and proof as regards the solution for some disputed issues between the parties.

    The positive effect of the res judicata should be respected in a second court proceeding which is related to the disputed issue, which was settled in a final manner, without possibility of being overruled. This will avoid contradictions between the two different judgements and ensures legal stability: it will not prevent the proceedings in the second trial, but will ease the burden of proof, bringing before the court findings on legal relations established in a final manner by a previous judgement and that cannot be ignored.

    Taking into account the res judicata effect of the (final) judgement which established that some of the practices were legal and that annulled the contravention report as regards those practices, the Court (partially) quashed the contested judgement and, after retrial, partially annulled the decision ordering the termination of those practices (which were in fact legal).

    As regards some other practices, in relation with which the contravention report was maintained by the same final judgement, the Court considered that it cannot have a different view as regards their unfair/misleading character since that would violate the res judicata effect of the judgement rendered by the other Court in the separate proceedings. Accordingly, it considered that the refusal to annul the administrative decision which ordered their termination was both sound and legal.

    Text integral: Text integral

  • Cazuri conexe

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  • Doctrină

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  • Rezultat

    The Court partially admitted the trader’s recourse and, after retrial, partially annulled the administrative decision regarding the practices recognised as legal by the final judgement, while maintained it as regards the practices whose misleading character was confirmed by the same final judgement. The judgement is final.