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

The commission opened less than 100 competition/antitrust cases – 97 of which more than half were unfair competition cases – 50 cases (51.5%) and 45 decisions in 2020

The core antitrust cases remained a very small fraction of the commission’s total workload: only 2 cartel cases (and no decisions or fines) in 2020 and 7 abuse of dominance cases (no decisions and no fines)

The number of merger filings was only slightly lower than those in the preceding year 2019 – 32 merger notifications (36 in 2019) and 32 decisions (35 in 2019). 21 notified concentrations were cleared unconditionally in a simplified phase 1 proceedings. 2 decisions found that the transaction did not qualify as a concentration and 7 decisions ruled that no mandatory filing was required. (2 notifications were withdrawn by the parties and cases closed.)

The clear conclusion is that the competition commission’s focus (just like in previous years) was not on competition and antitrust cases (cartels, abuse of dominance) but instead the public procurement cases consumed the most resources and energy of the authority. Even the enforcement of the competition law was predominantly directed to unfair competition cases that are relatively simple and essentially concern trading practices between two direct competitors with limited effect on the relevant market as a whole. The data in the latest annual report undoubtedly tells that the national competition authority fails to enforce the national and EU competition laws effectively. Hence the enforcement of the competition rules and policy as a tool for enhancement of the competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy remained largely unused and unutilized.