The High Court of Cassation and Justice has clarified that the public authority issuing a unilateral administrative act of a regulatory nature does not have the right to ask the court to annul it. The Court ruled that regulatory administrative acts may be revoked at any time by the issuing authority, which makes it impossible to request their annulment in court, as provided for in Article 1(6) of Law no. 554/2004. The decision emphasises that public authorities must have recourse to other legal means in order to revoke or amend such administrative acts.
In the context of a dispute, the Local Council of the Municipality of Constanta requested, against a company, the partial annulment of a decision of the Local Council on the granting of tax incentives in the context of the COVID pandemic crisis.
In this case, the High Court of Cassation and Justice (HCCJ) pointed out that regulatory administrative acts can be annulled by the authority that issued them, which means that the provisions of Art. 1(6) of Law no. 554/2004, which allows for the annulment in court only of acts that can no longer be revoked, are rendered inapplicable.
The Court pointed out that these regulatory acts do not enter into the civil circuit and that their implementation is carried out by the subsequent adoption of administrative acts of an individual nature. In interpreting the period of one year from the date of the unlawful administrative act within which an action for annulment may be brought, the HCCJ concluded that this legal provision applies exclusively to administrative acts of an individual nature, with the result that the public authorities which adopt a unilateral administrative act of a regulatory nature may not apply to the court for its annulment.
