At the end of 2023, the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition (“CPC”) issued a key decision related to an abuse of dominance case in the pharmaceutical sector. The decision, which is expected to have a significant impact on the parallel export of pharmaceuticals, provides a clue to the CPC’s approach when parallel export concerns…
Introduction On Wednesday 25 October 2023, the General Court of the European Union ruled in Case T-136/19 on the application of the prohibition of abuse of dominance under Article 102 TFEU. The judgment concerns the annulment of a Commission decision condemning Bulgarian gas holding company BEH and subsidiaries for an unauthorised refusal of access. The…
In 2021 the Bulgarian Competition Protection Commission (“BCPC”) was focused on investigations for abuse of dominance in the medical sector. The centre of CPC’s attention were some medical institutions that refused to provide access to equipment, facilities, and specialists for performing medical services/treatments subject to reimbursement by the National Health Insurance Fund (“NHIF”). The investigated…
Background Starting from 2009, the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition (“BCPC”) has conducted several sector inquiries and investigations on the oil market in Bulgaria – a sector giving rise to serious allegations for cartel activities and abuse of dominance. One of the last investigations was held in 2017. The proceedings were initiated as a…
The Bulgarian parliament recently adopted a number of significant amendments to the Bulgarian Protection of Competition Act (PCA). The amendments transpose into law Directive (EU) 2019/1 to empower the competition authorities of the Member States to be more effective enforcers and to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market (the ECN+ Directive) and Directive…
The two recent resale price maintenance (RPM) cases before the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC or Commission) concern prohibited agreements between the only importers of baby products with brands Medela and Canpol (SMART SM) and Philips Avent (IVENTAS) on one side, and the retailers of baby and mothercare products acting on the Bulgarian…
On 13 March 2020 the government declared a national state of emergency as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis. The state of emergency is currently in force until 13 May. This article outlines the impact of this declaration on Commission for Protection of the Competition (CPC) activities. CPC operations Currently, the CPC is operating…
From 1 January 2020, the Bulgarian Commission for the Protection of Competition (the “CPC”) has been applying new merger filing guidelines (the “Guidelines”). The former guidelines, applied for more than ten years, did not differentiate between transactions (simpler or more complex) irrespectively of their potential competition concerns. This unified approach was unnecessarily bureaucratic with regard…
The Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition (“BCPC”) imposed a fine amounting to BGN 315 612 the National Electricity Company EAD (“NEK”) for abuse of dominance – infringement of Art. 21, para. 1 of the Bulgarian Competition Protection Act (“BCPA”) (corresponding to Art. 102 TFEU). The BCPC found that NEK unilaterally and unjustifiably modified the…
By 19 July 2018 the Bulgarian competition authority (“the Bulgarian NCA”/ “CPC”) had never blocked a transaction in a merger control procedure.[1] Since then, CPC has prohibited a total of 4 concentrations[2], including proposed acquisitions of the Bulgarian subsidiaries of CEZ A.S. (“CEZ BG group”) by various investors twice.[3] The last prohibition occurred on 24…
