Today the European Court of Justice rendered its preliminary ruling in case C-882/19 (Sumal) finding that a victim of an infringement of EU competition law is entitled to claim damages from a subsidiary of the infringing company. To that end, the claimant must prove that the subsidiary and the parent company formed an economic entity […]
The Bulgarian competition authority published its 2020 activity report. The highlights include: Total cases opened – 907 Total decisions and rulings issued – 927 Like in previous years the large majority of cases concerned appeals against public procurement procedures – 803 cases in total that is more than 88.5% of the total cases in 2020 […]
In this second part of our overview of the CPC’s proposal for amendments of the Bulgarian Competition Protection Act (the “Proposal”), we comment on some of its most important aspects. Mandate of the CPC The Proposal provides for an extension of the CPC members’ mandate from five to seven years. According to the CPC, the […]
On 22 July 2020 the Sofia Region Administrative Court annulled the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition’s decision from 2019 prohibiting the acquisition of Czech utility CEZ’ assets in Bulgaria by the financial and insurance group Eurohold Bulgaria. The court found that the Commission had committed severe procedural violations depriving the parties from their right […]
On 30 January 2020 the ECJ issued its preliminary ruling in Case C-307/18 which is likely to have both general and sector-specific implications for antitrust practice. The case concerns certain pay-for-delay agreements between GSK as the manufacturer of an originator drug called paroxetine and its (potential) generic competitors on the UK market IVAX, GUK and […]
Our associate Dragomir Stefanov has recently written an article analysing the evolution of the concept of “restriction of competition” under Article 101 TFEU and its Bulgarian equivalent – Articles 15-17 of the Competition Protection Act (“Понятието за ограничаване на конкуренцията по смисъла на чл. 101 от ДФЕС и чл. 15 от ЗЗК”). It was published […]
We are pleased to announce that our team has contributed the Bulgaria chapter in The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Merger Control 2019. The guide gives an overview of the Bulgarian merger control regime and provides our practical advice and tips for businesses involved in transactions subject to merger filings and approval by the Bulgarian competition […]
The Bulgarian Competition Protection Commission has recently fined several companies on various unfair competition practices in what is a sound reminder of the importance of competition compliance reviews in daily business/marketing activities. Net Info On 15 November 2018 the Commission fined Net Info AD with approx. BGN 267,000 for misleading and unlawful comparative advertising. In […]
Following the GDPR hassle, next on the line for companies conducting business online within the EU comes the Regulation (EU) 2018/302 on addressing unjustified geo-blocking and other forms of discrimination based on customers’ nationality, place of residence or place of establishment within the internal market (the “Regulation”). The Regulation shall apply as from 3 December […]
The European Commission’s report on the e-commerce sector released in May (the Report) outlines the main trends and potential competition barriers in the online retail. Overall, the Commission did not deem necessary a review of the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER). This means that despite the ongoing innovations in the e-commerce business models, at this […]
