Bulgaria amends rules on dawn raids in its revised Protection Competition Act

The Bulgarian parliament passed amendments to the Protection of Competition Act (PCA), which went into effect on 26 February 2021. The only exception is the new chapter dealing with unfair commercial practices in the food and agricultural products supply chain, which will not enter into force until 1 November 2021. For a brief outline of the key changes to the PCA, click here.

New features in the PCA include the procedure for conducting unannounced inspections or “dawn-raids” by the Bulgarian Protection of Competition Commission (CPC). According to the amended PCA, the CPC now has the power to inspect the private homes and vehicles of company managers, representatives and employees. During such inspections, CPC experts can be accompanied and supported by police officers. The CPC, however, can only inspect private premises or cars in cases of suspected infringements of core anti-trust rules such as cartels, abuses of dominance or gun-jumping. Inspections of private homes or vehicles can only take place if the CPC has sufficient grounds to suspect that information and documents relevant to the infringement case have been stored there.

During inspections of private property, the CPC's powers are more limited than when raiding company premises (e.g. the CPC is not allowed to place a seal on premises, vehicles, or other carriers of information in the persons’s home or car until the inspection is completed).

As before, the CPC needs court permission to carry out such inspections. According to the amendments, this is the Administrative Court–Sofia District. Upon receipt of a dawn-raid application, the court will render a ruling on the same date, and will specify the full company name of the inspected company and the exact premises and vehicles to be inspected, including those belonging to particular individuals.

Appealing a court ruling will not stop its implementation. Following the issuance of a court ruling, the CPC will issue an order naming the experts who will carry out the inspection.

As dawn raids are being more and more common these days with authorities imposing huge fines, inspectors appearing simultaneously at different locations or subsidiaries in different countries, at different companies (competitors, customers, suppliers) and even at the private homes of managers and other employees, the CMS Competition Group has launched the CMS Dawn Raid Assistant app to guide our clients through the essentials in the event of a competition law dawn raid.

The CMS dawn raid package consists of a checklist, instructions and guidelines across 27 CMS countries and these are combined in a mobile app which can be always at hand. That, combined with a new, specially developed alert feature to contact CMS dawn raid lawyers at the touch of a button, so clients can feel secure knowing that CMS is there to assist and advise them.

The main benefits of the CMS Dawn Raid App are:

• Immediate and real-time assistance during the dawn raid via your smart phone
• Simple and easy to follow instructions which you can refer to and check off during a dawn raid
• Instant access to our dawn raid experts in 27 CMS countries to receive immediate advice
• Tailored guidelines for 27 CMS countries, using straightforward terms and wording (available for account holders)
• Content available in your local language

You can download the CMS Dawn Raid App from Google Play or the App Store.

For more information on the amended rules on dawn raids and how they could affect your business in Bulgaria, contact your CMS partner or local CMS experts: Nevena Radlova and Anna Tanova-Atanasova.