At the end of January, the Bulgarian national competition authority (CPC) announced its priorities in pursuing anti-trust infringements, unfair competition and unfair trading practices in 2023.
The pharma sector is listed first in the CPC's list of priorities as part of the CPC's mandate to facilitate effective competition at all levels in the distribution of medicines, stop abuses related to the duration of patent protection for active substances, support parallel imports of medicines, and help increase consumer choice and access to affordable treatment by allowing generic medicines to enter the market.
Other markets that are high on the CPC’s radar include e-commerce, energy, fuels, payment services and food products, particularly key products such as sugar, flour, oil, rice, dairy and meat products.
The Bulgarian competition watchdog identifies and investigates pricing and market-sharing cartels and other anti-trust infringements in the above sectors and others. Furthermore, the stated focus of the CPC is to identify “greenwashing” practices of companies, which conceal infringements of competition law under exaggerated claims of sustainability and environmental protection.
“Bid rigging” (i.e. collusive tendering) has been the CPC's priority for years, given the importance of public procurement rules and their strict observance for ensuring that citizens receive good quality products and services at the best possible financial and service-delivery terms. “No-poach agreements” (i.e. agreements between employers and competitors in the labour market to not attract or hire employees from each other) has also been added to the list.
In the area of unfair competition practices, the CPC will focus on advertising that claims reduced prices of goods or services and on unfair trading practices between buyers and suppliers at various stages of the agri-food supply chain. In implementing this last priority, the CPC recently launched a preliminary investigation into the offering, pricing and labelling of food products aimed at Bulgarian end customers. The CPC is currently collecting information from state authorities, producers, suppliers of food products and their associations, which would eventually allow the CPC to opening of cases ex officio and investigate infringement practices by retailers.
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