The Romanian Competition Council has imposed fines totaling nearly 4 million lei (approximately 780,000 euros) on two major transport federations and 18 taxi companies for engaging in an anti-competitive agreement. The antitrust authority penalized the Confederation of Licensed Operators and Transporters in Romania (COTAR), the Federation of Romanian Transport Operators (FORT), and the cluster of taxi operators for conspiring to distort competition within the online taxi booking and dispatch market.
The regulator’s investigation revealed that the involved parties actively coordinated their behavior to eliminate a tech competitor, Clever Tech SRL, from the premises of Bucharest Henri Coandă International Airport. Clever Tech managed a popular aggregator application that pooled ride offers from various independent taxi drivers. In an effort to protect their own market shares, the cartel members successfully pressured the National Company Bucharest Airports (CNAB) to remove the Clever aggregator app from the touch-screen terminals used by arriving passengers to order taxis inside the airport terminal.
Among the 18 sanctioned taxi operators are prominent local brands, including Cristaxi Service, Auto Cobălcescu, Meridian Taxi, and Speed Taxi. To facilitate the investigation, several entities—including the FORT federation alongside Auto Cobălcescu, Meridian Taxi, Cristaxi Service, and Grand Auto Taxi—officially admitted to participating in the anti-competitive blockade, which helped expedite the ruling.
In tandem with the financial penalties, the Competition Council has mandated sweeping changes at Bucharest’s main airport to ensure transparent, predictable, and non-discriminatory access for all digital transport providers. In response, airport operator CNAB has legally committed to leasing out terminal space for touch-screen kiosks without interfering in or restricting the types of software applications running on them.
Furthermore, the airport will open its passenger transport services to both aggregator applications and modern ride-sharing platforms, ending the historic monopoly enjoyed by traditional taxi dispatch systems. To guarantee fair market access, future touch-screen kiosk spaces will be auctioned exclusively through public bidding on the Romanian Commodities Exchange. To prevent any single player from dominating the airport hubs, participating companies will be restricted to winning only one space per bidding procedure, ensuring a diverse range of transport options for incoming travelers.
