The Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) adopted new Rules for Prioritisation of Requests for Initiating Proceedings in relation to prohibited agreements, decisions and concerted practices, potential abuses of monopoly or dominant position, and unfair competition. These Rules came into force on the 18 June 2021.
The Rules were adopted as a result of recent amendments to the Protection of Competition Act (PCA) transposing the requirements of EU Directive 2019/1 into Bulgarian law. The amended PCA provides that in certain cases the Chairman of the CPC may refuse to open proceedings to investigate infringements of competition law with a motivated order if the case does not fall within the scope of the CPC’s enforcement priorities. The Rules set out the criteria and procedure by which the CPC defines enforcement priorities and assesses whether a potential case falls within those priorities. The purpose of setting the priorities is to ensure the efficient use of the CPC's resources and to direct its efforts towards the prevention and termination of the most significant distortions of competition.
One of the prioritisation criteria is the presumable significant impact of the alleged infringement on the terms of competition in the market. The Rules indicate when the impact is considered ‘significant’ and point out the specific forms of violations where significance is presumed. The Rules also detail all other criteria for prioritisation, which should guarantee transparency and objectivity of CPC’s decisions.
Furthermore, CPC orders for refusing to initiate proceedings can be appealed before the Administrative Court Sofia District within seven days after the notification of the applicant. When the refusal order has finally entered into effect, the applicant can request reinstatement of the state fees paid in relation to the refused proceedings.
Along with the Rules, the CPC updated its Methodology for setting sanctions and fines, the rules on leniency and the rules on approval of proposed commitments by undertakings in relation to core anti-trust accusations.
For more information on the new Rules and how they could affect your business in Bulgaria, contact your CMS partner or local CMS experts: Nevena Radlova and Anna Tanova.
This article is co-authored by Kalina Krastanova.
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