The Competition Council fined Romanian banks 700 million euros, equal to what the European Commission fined Apple (500 million) and Meta (200 million)

The Romanian Competition Council's fine against 10 banks is among the largest fines applied in Europe, not only in the banking system, but also in other areas where the authorities use antitrust policy to limit monopoly tendencies.

• Bogdan Chirițoiu, the president of the Competition Council, said in the official statement that the decision was taken unanimously.
• The Competition Council explained how consumers with credit were affected.
• The general manager of Banca Transilvania, Omer Tetik, reacted: “The decision of the Competition Council encourages populism”.
• Recently, a fake campaign created with Artificial Intelligence and carried out on social networks, but also on websites, targets bank executives, who allegedly abuse journalists. What do fake photos show?

In 2025, the European Commission has promised to force big tech companies not to behave monopolistically.

Under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the EU launched investigations against Apple, Meta and Google. The fines were announced in April 2025: 500 million euros for Apple and 200 million euros for Meta.

The European Commission accused Apple of harming consumers, blocking alternatives and non-compliance with member states' rules. In Meta's case, the fine also provided for several violations. One of them noted that “Meta forced European users to choose exclusively between giving up their personal data for personalized advertising or paying a monthly subscription to get rid of ads.”

Relative to turnover, the fines for Apple and Meta amounted to approximately 0.14% of turnover. The commission could apply a maximum of 10%.

Fines in Romania

This is how the fines communicated on Sunday by the Competition Council to 10 banks show:

• Banca Transilvania SA: EUR 166.85 million (875.74 million lei)
• Banca Comercială Română SA: EUR 110.00 million (577.36 million lei)
• Raiffeisen Bank Romania SA: EUR 84.30 million (442.49 million lei)
• UniCredit Bank SA: EUR 82.12 million (431.03 million lei)
• BRD-Groupe Société Générale SA: EUR 78.58 million (412.47 million lei)
• ING Bank NV Amsterdam Bucharest Branch: EUR 77.33 million (405.91 million lei)
• CEC Bank SA: EUR 63.44 million (332.98 million lei)
• Exim Banca Românească SA: EUR 18.38 million (96.49 million lei)
• Banca Transilvania SA (for the act carried out by OTP Bank Romania SA): EUR 16.20 million (85.03 million lei)
• Libra Internet Bank SA: EUR 8.74 million (45.86 million lei)
• Banca Comercială Intesa Sanpaolo Romania SA: EUR 5.35 million (28.10 million lei)

Competition Council: “It directly affects consumers”

The Competition Council specified that “the banks participating in the setting of the ROBOR coordinated their behavior through an exchange of confidential and strategic information, especially regarding the price, regarding the level of the ROBOR in the fixing procedure”.

“Increasing ROBOR may be favorable to lenders, but it directly affects consumers and other borrowers whose contracts are linked to ROBOR,” the Council explained.

And since we are talking about many credits, said Bogdan Chirițoiu, the president of the Council, “variations of the size of a fraction of a percentage can generate substantial amounts”. Extra amounts for banks, minus amounts for those who took out loans.

Fines of 7-9% of turnover

If we refer to the turnover, the 10 banks were sanctioned with amounts of more than 5% of the turnover.

Banca Transilvania, “the leader in fines, has a turnover of 2.2 billion euros and received a fine of 166 million euros. In its case, the fine represents 7.5% of the turnover and 20% of the bank's profit.

The second bank on the list, in terms of the size of the fine, is BCR. The fine is 110 million euros, representing approximately 8.8% of the bank's turnover.

A viral campaign against the credibility of banks

In a public message after the fine, the General Manager of Transilvania Bank, Omer Tetik, said on Linkedin that “The Competition Council's decision encourages populism and undermines the chances of an economic relaunch, in a complicated period for the country and the economy, a period in which the banking system is the main pillar of economic stability.”

Photo: Prahovean Observatory

Omer Tetik did not elaborate on what he meant when he spoke of “encouraging populism”.

In the last month, an unexpected campaign, created with the help of Artificial Intelligence, has been taking place on social networks. The doctored pictures show various journalists, some investigative, being run at gunpoint into TV studios or roughed up by bank executives.

Photo: Prahovean Observatory

The campaign claims that journalists, including some from HotNews, have exposed bank irregularities and been threatened by their executives. Or they were even brutalized. The events did not take place, the whole campaign is one of manipulation.