Schoenherr helps Electrica win 46 million Euro administrative contentious litigation

Schoenherr Romania successfully assisted Electrica in winning a long-term administrative contentious litigation case, with a stake worth 46 million Euro. Electrica filed this case seven years ago against the Romanian Court of Accounts, a state authority charged with conducting financial audits of the management of state and public resources, with a view to obtaining the annulment of an administrative decision by the authority claiming that Electrica had misused company funds.

Schoenherr assisted Electrica in challenging the decision issued by the Court of Accounts both in the administrative phase and in contentious administrative litigation. In July 2023, the firm’s dispute resolution team successfully obtained a positive court ruling for the client, which became final in April 2024. The court partially annulled the Court of Account’s decision, maintaining only a payment obligation amounting to about 1,000 Euro from a total of 46 million Euro.

“We are happy to see this high-stakes court case successfully resolved for our client,” said Schoenherr partner Iustin Armașu who, together with office managing partner Sebastian Guțiu, co-heads the local dispute resolution practice in Romania. “Administrative contentious litigation is one of our key areas of expertise in dispute resolution. We believe our team’s track record in this type of dispute, as well as our excellent collaboration with the Electrica team throughout the case, have contributed to this positive outcome.”

Serving over 3.9 million users, Electrica Group is a key player in the energy sector, active in the distribution, supply, production and energy services segments. The company has been listed on the Bucharest and London stock exchanges since 2014.

The Schoenherr team advising Electrica in this matter was led by Iustin Armașu (partner), with Andrei Greceanu (attorney at law) playing an important role in the case team and Alexandra Huza (senior attorney at law) handling key aspects of the project’s initial phases.