The concept of class action in the Romanian jurisdiction is not yet regulated (with the exception of Law no. 414/2023 concerning consumer law), however the Romanian Civil Procedure Code (“RCPC”) provides for legal mechanisms allowing multiple participants in court cases, either as “co-participation in the case” or as “voluntary intervention in a case”.

According to Art. 59 of the RCPC, any number of persons may join together as claimants or defendants – in co-participation – if (i) their claims are based on a common right or obligation; (ii) their rights or obligations have a common cause or (iii) there is a strong connection between their rights or obligations. If claims that are closely linked are raised separately, the court can order that they be consolidated and tried together.

According to Art. 37 of the RCPC, claims or defences may also be brought by persons, organisations, institutions or authorities who, although not justifying a personal interest, act to defend the legitimate rights or interests of persons in special situations or to protect a general interest.

Also, in the Romanian jurisdiction the following can be assimilated to class actions: (i) actions regarding labour law, pursuant to Art. 219 of the Labour Code; (ii) actions regarding human rights, pursuant to Art. 28 of Government Ordinance no. 137/2000, (iii) actions regarding competition law, pursuant to art. 66 para. 1 and 6 of Law no. 21/1996 and Government Emergency Ordinance no. 170/2020, (iv) actions regarding the insolvency, pursuant to Art. 58 para. 1 h) of the Law no. 85/2014 (v) actions brought by property owners challenging a building permit that infringes their property rights.

At the end of 2023, Romania adopted Law no. 414/2023 on the representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers, which transposes the Directive (EU) 2020/1828 of the European Parliament and of the Council.

According to Law no. 414/2023, with regard to the procedural aspects, the class actions initiated by qualified entities, as defined by the Law and the Directive, are exempt from paying the judicial stamp duty and the first instance ruling is subject to appeal. The decision rendered by the appellate court is also subject to a second appeal, by raising the specific second appeal motives, regulated by the RCPC and the second appeal suspends the enforcement of the ruling on the appeal.

If the respondent of the class action fails to respect the measures enacted by the decision rendered against it, Law no. 414/2023 regulates fines amounting to EUR 25,000.

The RCPC does not include specific regulations. The claims must have a common cause or be closely linked; depending on the number of claimants or defendants the court may ask that one representative is named; opt-in actions filed through a representative (i.e., lawyer, association) will need to be based on a valid mandate of representation.

A class action in the human rights field may be brought by a non-profit organisation activating in that field.

Under insolvency law, the judicial administrator, the committee of creditors or the majority creditor may bring an action for the annulment of the debtor’s fraudulent deeds.

According to labour law, organisations such as unions may bring a class action for the protection of rights deriving from labour law, public officer statute or individual/collective employment contracts.

In light of the Law no. 414/2023, a qualified consumer organisation or public body (“Qualified Entities”) can represent any number of consumers in class actions initiated before the Romanian courts of law against professionals such as corporations, banks or other companies in order to obtain (i) compensation and (ii) the cessation or prohibition of illegal practices carried out in violation of the relevant consumer protection legislation.

For an entity to be a “qualified one”, it must fulfil some specific requirements, such as: (i) it must be a legal entity that can prove that it has carried out, during the 12 months preceding the application for designation, a public activity in relation to the protection of consumer interests; (ii) it must have a legitimate interest in protecting the interests of consumers; (iii) it must be a non-profit entity.

The court jurisdiction for class actions or collective redress proceedings follows the general jurisdiction regulations provided for by the RCPC and other procedural regulations which vary depending on the specific object of the action brought before the court.

The general provisions of the RCPC do not contain specific regulations regarding the types of conduct or causes of action, the only requirements for co-participation concerning if (i) the claims are based on a common right or obligation; (ii) the rights or obligations have a common cause or (iii) there is a strong connection between the rights or obligations.

Law no. 414/2023 provides for that claims may be brought by Qualified Entities seeking measures to stop commercial practices affecting the collective interests of consumers and/or to obtain redress.

In the absence of specific regulations on class actions in general, and taking into account that the RCPC only regulates general requirements for co-participation in judiciary proceedings, any types of claims may be brought on a collective basis if these general requirements are fulfilled.

There is no publicly available official information on the number of class actions filed or other group proceedings that use either opt-in or opt-out mechanisms. According to several articles published by experts in this field, in Romania there has been limited case law concerning class actions, case which faced significant impediments due to the absence of regulations.

Based on the specific regulations in certain law fields, indicated in the answer to Question 1, the top three emerging business risks on which class actions are focused are (i) consumer law, (ii) human rights and (iii) competition law.

The proceedings assimilated to class actions, indicated in the answer to Question 1, are regulated as “opt in” jurisdiction.

The Romanian legislative authorities have regulated the “opt in” mechanism for the representative actions seeking remedies through Law no. 414/2023. This system requires that each affected consumer must give their explicit consent to be represented by the Qualified Entity, within 30 days of filing the action, and that the court’s decision (which must expressly mention the name of the consumer) must take effect in their regard. However, the Qualified Entity may obtain injunctive relief, without requiring the consent of individual consumers or proving any actual loss or harm suffered by individual consumers or negligence of the trader.

In light of the Art. 202 of the RCPC, in case of co-participation the court may order that the collective will be represented by one or more persons, taking into consideration the number of persons forming the collective, in order to ensure a normal continuation of the trial and with due regard for the rights of the parties. If the collective cannot choose a representative, the court will appoint a judicial curator and the collective will bear the curator’s fees.

According to Law no. 414/2023, the Qualified Entity may be required to obtain the written consent of individual consumers or proving any actual loss or harm suffered by individual consumers or negligence of the trader, as indicated in the answer for Question no. 8. The action will be settled according to the rules and procedures regulated by the RCPC, but the court will ensure an accelerated trial if the action concerns cessation or prohibition of illegal practices.

The remedies that are available to claimants in class actions are the same as in regular actions.

Under Law no. 414/2023, the Qualified Entity may request compensation and/or the cessation or prohibition of illegal practices carried out in violation of the relevant consumer protection legislation.

Qualified entities may seek two categories of measures in court as a result of an alleged infringement by a company of its customers’ rights. On the one hand, representative actions can seek interim or permanent injunctions to stop traders’ practices. On the other hand, the main novelty introduced by Law 414 concerns remedies, which may consist of compensation, price reduction or reimbursement, product repair or replacement, as well as damages for breaches of companies’ obligations towards consumers.

Punitive or exemplary damages are a specific type of damage under Romanian law (construed narrowly as a particular type of sanction, similar to a judicial fine), which can be awarded only by the court in the context of enforcement proceedings and subject to specific conditions being met, when: (i) a debtor has failed to perform his obligations to take a certain action or to refrain from a certain action and the damages are intended to compel the debtor to observe these obligations; and (ii) the respective obligations are personal to the debtor (intuitu personae). This would be the case, for example, where following a class action against a bank, the court orders the bank to remove the abusive clauses from the contracts in force and amend the contracts accordingly. If the bank fails to perform these obligations, the court may enforce its decision by ordering the bank to pay punitive damages per each day of delay.

The judicial system in Romania does not involve the participation of juries in any type of proceedings and therefore, class actions cannot be subject to juries.

The damages awarded in class actions are determined by considering an appropriate or equivalent compensation for obstruction of rights exercise or in order to restore the each party’s position before the violation.

The law does not provide for specific jurisdictional obstacles for class actions or collective redress proceedings, however the general procedural rules apply, according to the RCPC and special regulations.

In general, class actions and collective redress proceedings can be filed regardless of the nationality or domicile of claimants, if the defendant is Romanian. However, depending on the object of the action, particular regulations regarding courts’ jurisdiction may apply, constituting exceptions to the RCPC rule of territorial jurisdiction based on the defendant’s domicile.

EU Directive 2020/1828 was transposed in Romania with the adoption of Law no. 414/2023 on the representative actions for the protection of the collective interests of consumers.

According to the Romanian Constitution, the EU law has direct and immediate applicability in Romania.

Both the RCPC and Law no. 414/2023 provide for the possibility of a settlement agreement conclusion between the parties. However, as opposed to the RCPC, the settlement agreement under Law no. 414/2023 will be verified and acknowledged by the court.

According to the RCPC, the parties may settle before the court or outside of the court in any stage of the trial, while Law no. 414/2023 provides for that the court verifies and acknowledges the settlement of the action.

Romania does not have any laws regulating such interaction between class actions and regulatory enforcement findings. Class actions are judicial procedures and do not interact with administrative procedures such as those of the competition or financial regulators.

There is insufficient data regarding the Romanian case law on class actions in general, but the possibility to bring a class action for ESG matters is not excluded, if the collective’s rights infringement is caused by an ESG issue, resulting in a class action under consumer protection law, human rights law or employment law.

Litigation funding is neither permitted nor prohibited by law for class action mechanisms.

However, according to Art. 10 para. 1 of the Law no. 414/2023, a representative action for redress can only be funded by a third party if there is no conflict of interest.

All civil litigation mechanisms are allowed to have contingency fee agreements. However, under Romanian Bar rules, the lawyer’s fee must not be exclusively dependant on the outcome of the case, meaning that the fee must have a flat/hourly component, separate from the contingency fee.

The absence of any specific regulations leads to the applicability of the general rule stating that the unsuccessful party must pay its court expenses at the request of the successful party. Under the RCPC, the court expenses of the successful party, representing the lawyer’s fee, can be reduced by the court if the expense is very disproportionate in relation to the lawyer’s activity, the value and the complexity of the case and by taking into account the circumstances of the case.

There are no official proposals in Romania at this moment for the reform of class actions or collective redress proceedings.