Suciu Popa obtains an important victory for Bolt, a top international actor present on the Romanian ride-hailing market

Suciu Popa successfully represented Bolt and obtained the full dismissal of an unfair competition claim before the Romanian courts. The claim consisted in a class-action filed by an association of taxi drivers, several taxi companies as well multiple individual taxi drivers, aimed at banning the use of the „Bolt” app in Bucharest, based on various alleged unfair competition allegations.

Despite claimants’ suit being similar to the one successfully filed in Cluj against another ride-hailing company, the arguments brought forward by Suciu Popa were upheld by the court, thereby resulting in the claim being fully dismissed by the court as ungrounded and lacking merits.

The court’s decision represents a veritable landmark in this sector and is all the more important, as it clarifies concepts such as substitutability of ride-hailing and taxi services, as well as the relation between local sector regulations and the relevant EU court precedents. Such clarifications are extremely important given their novelty, as well as the fact that they enable the continuation of ride-hailing services, thereby contributing to a sustainable and reliable development of transport in Bucharest and other very crowded urban areas, as well as to the promotion of services which, through their technical optimization driven added-value are logistically efficient and help reduce environmental impact.

The team handling this dispute comprised attorneys part of the Competition and Dispute Resolution departments of Suciu Popa, led by Partner Andrei Georgescu, Co-Head of the Competition Department and Managing Associate Radu Chiran from the Dispute Resolution Department, supported by Associates Paul Manaila and Andrei Nicolae.