Filenews 13 November 2021 - by Eleftheria Paizanos
The uncollected fines imposed by the PSC skyrocketed. According to data held by "F", the amount of fines not collected by the Commission is €86.8 million. In total, the PSC, from 2012 to 2021, imposed "bells" amounting to €100.5 million. in many businesses, for unfair competition, pre-pricing and operation of monopolies or oligopolies in violation of the law, but in its coffers it put only € 14.1 million.
The reason why the amount of uncollected fines increases year by year is due to appeals against Commission decisions. In fact, even when the PSC is vindicated, appeals are made, resulting in a long delay in the collection of financial penalties.
In detail, according to the data promoted to parliament by the PSC, in recent years the financial sanctions imposed concern, among others, the following:
- By May 2021, three companies have been fined € 1.3 million. Of these, only one paid the fine, €868,522. Also, for a fine of €271,385, court proceedings were initiated to collect it, while a set-off of €166,441 was made with a decision annulled in 2018.
- In 2020, financial penalties of €1.61 million were imposed. and have not yet been collected. For a fine of €5,000, the Legal Service proceeded to appoint a lawyer, who filed a civil action for collection of the fine.
- In 2019, fines of €3.7 million were imposed. but no recovery has been made, as an appeal is pending in a case and a decision is awaited by the courts. The other two cases were the subject of legal proceedings to recover the fines.
- In 2018, the amount of fines was €5.24 million and receipts of €904,000, while an amount of €4.33 million is pending to be collected.
- In 2017, fines of €20.8 million were imposed, of which €39,000 were imposed, while an amount of €20.7 million has not yet been collected.
- In 2016, the amount of fines was €31 million, of which €23.1 million was paid. €7.6 million has been written off. The rest are still to be recovered.
- In 2015, €27.6 million of the financial penalties of €27.6 million were imposed. An amount of €23.2 million has not yet been collected. The state received fines of €4.4 million.
- In 2014, the amount of fines imposed was €2.1 million. of which €1,600 was collected. The rest is unknown as to how much will be collected.
- In 2013, the amount of financial penalties imposed by the Commission was €717,573 of which it received €335,277. An amount of €217,721 is unknown when it will be collected and court action was taken.
- In 2012, it imposed fines of €4.8 million. in 12 cases, of which an amount of €4.5 million was collected. For a fine of €214,063, the Commission sent a letter to the Attorney General to take legal action to recover him. It is worth noting that a new lawsuit has been filed in court.
Court proceedings and email from the Attorney General
For 8 cases in which fines were imposed by the PSC, totalling €1.21 million, judicial proceedings were initiated by the Republic to collect them as civil debts. At the same time, for another case, where a fine was imposed on a company, amounting to € 3.3 million, an e-mail was sent by the Attorney General for its collection. Also, in another case, the court annulled part of the fine imposed by the PSC. Specifically, the financial penalty was €2.1 million, but the Administrative Court annulled part of the fine, amounting to €430,136, resulting in an appeal.
