site.btaUPDATED Progressive Bulgaria Submits Two Bills to End Unfair Trade Practices

Representatives of Progressive Bulgaria have submitted two bills to Parliament to eliminate all unfair trade practices. One proposes amendments to the Competition Protection Act, while the other concerns the Consumer Protection Act, MP Yavor Gechev of Progressive Bulgaria told a news briefing on Monday.

“There are several factors pushing prices upward: the war, fuel costs, but there is also unjustified high prices by private retail chains,” Gechev explained.

The bills aim to minimize risks and eliminate all unfair trade practices that could lead to unjustified markups, Gechev said.

The 13 types of unfair practices, included in the current “blacklist”, will be expanded to 33. He also said that the amendments introduce the concept of proving an excessively high price.

Gechev further said that the second aspect of the proposed changes is about the so-called traceability register. It concerns wholesale trade and introduces a comprehensive registry that will document products throughout the entire supply chain, although this will not impose additional burdens on traders, the MP explained.

Once the mechanism becomes operational, low-quality goods will no longer be allowed onto Bulgarian territory.

The third aspect of the proposal is borrowed from German legislation and concerns the concept of a joint monopoly position.

“When several market entities, even though they are not commercially connected, linked through ownership, or explicitly coordinating with one another, possess such market power that they are effectively able to distort market relations and create anomalies in normal pricing trends,” the MP explained.

The concept of “excessively high prices” is also being introduced, and additional powers will be granted to the Commission for Protection of Competition to require justification for how these prices are formed throughout the supply chain, as well as proof supporting those prices, Gechev added.

According to him, regulators have so far lacked sufficient tools to combat such practices. “After the introduction of this law, we believe that regulators will be able to operate in a very different way and demonstrate market transparency and how certain prices are formed,” he added.