Filip & Company law firm announces a significant victory before the High Court of Cassation and Justice (ICCJ). Having taken on the case in the final appeal, the firm’s team succeeded in overturning the decision of the Bucharest Court of Appeal, which had ordered a 30-day suspension of ROMATSA’s operating licence. ROMATSA’s appeal was upheld, and the decision is final.

The stakes in this case were unprecedented: the suspension of ROMATSA’s operating licence would have resulted in the closure of Romania’s airspace, with potentially catastrophic consequences for both military and civilian operations. This would have effectively halted all commercial and military flights to and from Romania, with a direct impact on national security and on the millions of passengers transiting Romanian airspace.

“It was a case with implications that were quite unique, because the effects of a court ruling went far beyond the legal relationship between the parties involved. The suspension of ROMATSA’s operating licence would have had direct consequences for the functioning of air traffic in Romania, so it was essential to construct a very rigorous legal argument in the final appeal and, at the same time, to put the specific implications of the case into context. We are grateful that the High Court upheld the appeal and that our contribution helped secure a final ruling in such an important case”, said Adrian Cristea, Senior Associate at Filip & Company.

Essentially, the dispute centred on ROMATSA’s decision to use the FEAST test conducted via the Eurocontrol platform, rather than directly recruiting individuals who held a trainee air traffic controller’s licence obtained from a civil aviation school. The Bucharest Court of Appeal had ruled that this practice constituted repeated acts of discrimination and had ordered the suspension of the operating licence.

At the hearing of the final appeal, the Filip & Company team was successful in having all procedural objections raised by the opposing party dismissed directly during the court session, which was subsequently followed by the pleadings on the merits of the appeal.

The Filip & Company team that assisted ROMATSA on this case consisted of Adrian Cristea (senior associate) and Bogdan Fărcane (associate). This victory was also made possible by George Trantea (partner) and Cristina Tudoran (partner) who contributed valuable ideas that helped shape our legal arguments.