Bulgaria: Competition law update
Overview
The Bulgarian Commission for the Protection of Competition issued Decision No. 1046 on September 20, 2018, approving the acquisition of Rapido Express and Logistics OOD by competitor Speedy AD. However, the authority simultaneously penalized Speedy AD for “failing to provide complete and accurate information” in its notification, marking a significant enforcement development.
Concentration Analysis
The authority determined that Speedy AD’s acquisition constituted a concentration under Article 22(1), point 2 of the Act for the Protection of Competition. The transaction met mandatory notification thresholds, including a combined turnover exceeding BGN 25 million and individual entity thresholds of BGN 3 million.
The concentration affected two markets: internal courier services and international land-based courier services, where horizontal overlap existed between the parties. Market leaders included Ekont Express EOOD with approximately 50% share in domestic services and DHL Bulgaria EOOD with roughly 40% share in international services.
The authority approved the transaction because Speedy AD’s resulting market share would not exceed 40%, preventing establishment of dominance and maintaining competitive market structure.
Enforcement Action
The authority sanctioned Speedy AD with BGN 205,622, representing 0.2% of its 2017 turnover. The penalty resulted from omitting disclosure of a prior concentration wherein Rapido Express had acquired D&D Express EOOD’s operations—information a competitor, Tip-Top Courier AD, disclosed to regulators.
This marked the first instance of sanctioning under Article 47(5) specifically for concentration-related information failures, previously applied only to unfair competition cases.