top of page
Court House

class actions

Mararu & Mararu SCA is a Romanian law firm specialized in civil, penal, consumer, labor, commercial, environmental and administrative collective litigation in Romania.

Class actions can be a serious threat to the reputation and operations of any business. This is why our experienced trial attorneys make the defense of class action litigation an important focus, whether on antitrust, environmental protection, consumer protection, insurance, labor and employment, products liability, securities and tort cases, and the criminal defense or the collective legal assistance and representation of investors or aggrieved parties within the criminal prosecution of fraud charges brought by Romanian, foreign or international law enforcement agencies - an important tool of legal defense for damages recovery.

 

Romanian law acknowledges certain forms of multi-party litigation, however the concept of class action in the Romanian jurisdiction - whereby no general or unified court procedural framework exists to regulate civil, administrative or penal procedures for class actions - is limited and different from that commonly acknowledged and applicable in other notable class-action jurisdictions such as the UK or the US, being expressly and specifically provided for only a few particular fields of law and their respective court procedures, namely 

 

  • consumer protection law for injunctive relief (representative actions to collective consumer interests), 

  • human rights law (NGOs acting in defense of human rights or those with a legitimate interest in fighting against discrimination),

  • competition law (consumer protection associations are granted legal standing to act on behalf of consumers for the purpose of claiming damages caused by the infringement of competition law provisions, and professional associations and employer associations -"Asociatii Patronale", Rom. - can bring claims for damages for breach of competition law on behalf of their members), 

  • employment law (trade unions are entitled, among others, to defend the rights of their members protected by employment law, public officer statutes, collective bargaining agreements and individual labour agreements), and 

  • insolvency law (the court receiver or liquidator has standing in bringing claims for annulment of fraudulent deeds carried out by the debtor, benefiting all creditors registered in the insolvency procedure, while in the receiver/liquidator has not initiated class action proceedings, the creditor’s committee, as well as the creditor owning 50% of the receivables, can themselves bring such a claim),

  • environmental protection law (the public and the NGOs have standing in Romanian courts of law as per the 1998 Århus Convention).

 

Concerning the forms of multi-party/collective litigation - which would not however be expressly acknowledged as a class-action - both the Romanian Civil Procedure Code and the Romanian Penal Procedure Code provide legal mechanisms that allow multiple parties to jointly participate in court cases, either through "co-participation" or "voluntary intervention" (the last being applicable for civil proceedings), whereby any number of individuals can join (a more elaborate "Opt-In", achieved via an individual court action/claim) as claimants or defendants in co-participation if their individual claims for damages arise from a shared right or obligation, have a common cause, or are closely connected. Moreover, even if the related claims are filed separately, the court/prosecutor may consolidate them for joint civil or penal proceedings. In addition, the Romanian Civil Procedure Code permits claims or defenses from individuals, organizations, or authorities which, while lacking personal interest, seek however to protect the legitimate rights of others in special situations or uphold a general interest. ​

Examples of Representative Legal Work

❡ Our law firm successfully represented a group of 37 nationwide representative employers confederations, federations and associations (among which all the Social Economic Council members negotiating the collective labor bargaining agreements and other social-economical legislation in Romania with the Romanian Government), representing altogether tens of thousands of Romanian companies, versus a newly formed confederative business alliance, on grounds of non-representativeness and of non-susceptibility of name assignment.

 

❡ Mararu & Mararu SCA successfully represented a group of security companies comprising of almost 80% of the Romanian security industry market organised in the largest security employers organisation in Romania, in a case versus the Romanian Government and the Ministry of Interior of Romania, for the annulment a Government Decision (No. 519/2004, published in the Official Gazette No. 349/2004), saving over 10 Million Euro in costs for the industry.

 

❡ We provided legal assistance and court litigation in a pyramidal (Ponzi) life insurance scheme fraud, with 182 damaged parties and €5,000,000 in damages. The case took 4 years to complete by final judgement that sentenced the guilty party to prison and to repay the damages, out of which over €3,500,000 have been repaid during the initial stages of the trial. 

 

❡ We provided legal assistance and representation in a case prosecuted by DIICOT Romania (the Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism), with the assistance of the B.C.C.O. (the Organised Crime Combat Brigade of the Romanian Police), the F.B.I., the EUROPOL and over a dozen of other foreign law enforcement agencies (international law enforcement collaborations based on MLAT - Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties, Letters Rogatory and other international instruments for cooperation in criminal matters - the U.S. (D.O.J.), Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, the P.R.C. / Hong-Kong, the U.K., Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Croatia, Portugal and Estonia) involving a cross-border 55,000 BTC rolled-over crypto-mining Ponzi scheme purportedly perpetrated out of Romania with over 10,000 BTC in direct damages and over 355.000 BTC in consequential damages for 48 foreign investors.

 

❡ Legal assistance in a crypto fraud case perpetrated out of Italy for the recovery of digital crypto assets for international investors.

 

Of counsel legal support to then - the biggest Romanian law firm engaged in environmental protection litigation concerning a collective action for damages over a major environmental industrial pollution claim.

❡ Mararu & Mararu SCA routinely represents various major international creditors in claims before Romanian insolvency courts and insolvency court receivers within business reorganisation plans and procedures or bankruptcies, primarily for cross-border industrial, technological, commercial, IP and service foreign credit.

Business Vlogger
  • Whatsapp

Talk to a Lawyer Now

We offer convenient service delivery and contact options: send us a call-back request, book online a Zoom consultation, live chat, or WhatsApp chat/call

Working Hours

Let's Talk

Office Address

Mon - Fri: 9am - 6pm​​

11F Carpatilor Street

075100 Otopeni, Romania​

bottom of page