Digi Romania has secured a first-instance acquittal from the Bucharest Court of Appeal in the long-running corruption case brought by Romania’s National Anticorruption Directorate (DNA) over football rights payments.
In a decision dated 25 November 2025, the Court of Appeal acquitted Digi Romania S.A., Integrasoft and all current and former directors involved in the case, ruling that the criminal acts they had been accused of “do not exist”. The court also ordered the lifting of seizure measures previously imposed on Digi Romania’s assets.
The criminal investigation dates to 2017 and centred on allegations of bribery and money laundering linked to Romanian football rights. It led to a 2019 judgment by the Bucharest Tribunal, which convicted RCS & RDS (now Digi Romania) and Integrasoft, imposed fines, ordered the confiscation of several million euros and maintained seizures over real estate assets.
The verdict was overturned in November 2021, when the Bucharest Court of Appeal allowed the appeals of Digi Romania, Integrasoft and several directors, quashed the Tribunal’s decision in its entirety and sent the case back for retrial.
The latest ruling is the outcome of that retrial process and, for now, removes both the criminal findings and the associated asset freezes from over the operator.
Digi has consistently argued that the accusations were unfounded and says the Court of Appeal’s decision confirms its long-held position on the case.
However, the company has also underlined that the ruling is not definitive: as a first-instance judgment issued upon retrial, it remains open to further appeal under Romanian procedure.
The acquittal eases a long-standing legal overhang for Digi Communications N.V., which has been expanding its fixed and mobile operations in Romania and Spain and pushing into new markets such as Portugal and Belgium.
But the group will have to wait until any appeal routes are exhausted before it can finally close the chapter on one of the most high-profile legal cases to have shadowed a major Central and Eastern European pay TV and telecoms operator in recent years.
