Amendments To Bulgarian Competition Law: Improvements Towards More Efficient Proceedings Or Blank Implementation?

Amendments to the Competition Protection Act ("CPA") came into force on 26 February 2021. On paper, the changes look good and are another step towards competition rules that are aligned with European regulations. In particular:

The SIEC test is formally introduced as part of the merger control proceedings: The former CPA provided a dominance test for transactions (i.e. a transaction can be prohibited if it strengthens or creates a dominant position in the market). The significant impediment of effective competition (SIEC) test was not formally recognised under the former CPA. In practice, however, the Commission for the Protection of Competition ("CPC") applied the test, so the amendment is more of a formality.