Westgate Romania SRL fined €50,000 over Stanleybet deal
Operator found to have completed merger before authorised by competition regulator
Westgate Romania SRL has been fined RON 229,496 (€50,000) by the Romanian Competition Council over its acquisition of Stanleybet’s Romanian arm.
Westgate purchased a 10-year licence contract from Stanley International Betting Limited, which entitled it to an exclusive licence over the Stanleybet.ro and Stanleysport.ro domain names.
However, the fine was levied after the regulator found Westgate had begun post-merger business activities before receiving authorisation to do so, contravening Romanian competition law.
The Competition Council carried out dawn raids at the Westgate headquarters after being authorised by the Bucharest Court of Appeal, collecting documents and information concerning Westgate’s business activities.
In its investigation, the Council discovered that Westgate had opened and closed workstations, installed and removed computer terminals and had amended Stanleybets fixed-odds betting rules.
Under Romanian competition law, any merger or acquisition where the cumulated turnover of the companies involved exceeds €10m or when at least two of the companies have Romania based revenues which exceed €4m is required to be approved by the Competition Council before it can be implemented.
In addition, a buyer cannot make business decisions about an acquired company, including concluding contracts, selling assets or restructuring the business before that authorisation is received.
Westgate acknowledged its error in making these business decisions without prior approval being received and as a result the Competition Council agreed to reduce the fine levied to its current level.