A Positive Outlook for Dealmaking in Bulgaria, Interview

Our partners Dragomir Stefanov and Pavel Hristov spoke with CEE Legal Matters on the current state of M&A activity and their expectations. Overall the deal market has been fairly hot in the recent months, including Bulgarian aspects of mega-, trans-Atlantic deals, regional and cross-border transactions. Unsurprisingly, the tech sector was particularly active. Some of the […]

Topline Analysis on the Google Shopping EU Case

The Google Shopping case is now one last step away from final decision following Advocate General Kokott’s opinion from last week. The AG sided with the European Commission and the General Court which upheld Google’s 2.4bn fine for preferencing its comparison shopping service over rivals in Google’s general search results website. A few interesting takeaways […]

Latest trends in competition enforcement pose challenges to legal certainty in deal making

Growing concerns about the effect that some acquisitions falling below the mandatory merger notification thresholds may have on innovation and effective competition are increasingly shaping competition policy within the EU. Last week the Belgian competition authority closed an investigation opened earlier in March 2023 involving a possible abuse of dominance arising from an acquisition in […]

Bulgarian Competition Authority Publishes Annual Report

The Bulgarian competition authority published its annual 2022 report, with a significant delay. Repeatedly, the numbers confirm that the competition commission (CPC) still focuses its practice and resources in areas falling outside the traditional competition and antitrust. The CPC opened total 873 cases and issued 651 decisions, including 778 relating to public procurement (538 decisions), […]

The EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation – an Overview

The European Union’s Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) entered into force on 12 January 2023 and establishes a new legal framework protecting against distortions of competition on the EU internal market caused by foreign subsidies. Starting from 12 October 2023, acquisitions of significant EU businesses and large EU public tenders will be subject to mandatory notification […]

Hristov Partners Acted on the Business Combination of AIOPSGROUP and valantic

Our firm advised the founders and selling shareholders of AIOPSGROUP. The acquisition of a majority shareholding interest and a business combination of AIOPSGROUP and valantic GmbH will undoubtedly be among the major deals in the thriving Bulgarian IT sector. We acted as sellers’ lead counsel, organised and coordinated a roster of multi-jurisdictional legal teams in […]