Competition Law

DOBREV & LYUTSKANOV Law Firm has provided legal assistance and protects the rights of its clients in the field of competition law ever since the introduction of the anti-trust legislation in Bulgaria. Throughout this period, our team has successfully gained substantial experience in the enforcement of the EU and national legislation that increasingly shapes the standards of business conduct and practice.

The Competition department in DOBREV & LYUTSKANOV Law Firm provides legal assistance and defence in cases of violation of anti-trust legislation, ensuring legal representation of its clients in cases of investigations initiated by the regulatory authority into alleged prohibited agreements, as well as in the conduct of down-raids in the course of such investigations. Our team provides consultations which assist economic operators in reaching compliance of their market behaviour with the anti-trust rules, advising them on the conclusion of all types of horizontal and vertical agreements, the establishment of joint ventures and the operation of distribution systems. We pay special attention to the opportunities for exemption from these prohibitions that the EU and national legislation offer. An important element of our work is the legal consultancy with a view to joining the Leniency programme as adopted by the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC).

Working in close contact with our clients, DOBREV & LYUTSKANOV Law Firm aims to ensure that clients’ market conduct is compliant with the prohibition of the abuse of monopoly or dominant position. The law firm provides consultancy to various companies holding dominant position on the market from the perspective of their pricing policy, the prevention of discriminatory terms and conditions in their business relations and in the operation of “essential facilities”.

Our firm offers legal advice in cases of concentration of economic activities through mergers and acquisitions, making a preliminary assessment of the risk of occurrence of conditions for concentration in accordance with the national and EU legislation and taking part in the preparation of the required notifications and in the procedures for the issuance of the requisite permissions by the regulatory authority. Our team pays great attention to the cases of unfair competition and wrongful granting of state aid.

Some of the services provided by DOBREV & LYUTSKANOV in this area are as follows:

Consultancy and legal representation in proceedings initiated for breach of anti-trust rules;
Participation and legal assistance in the course of search or seizure of evidence conducted by the regulatory authority;
Consultancy on the conclusion of horizontal agreements between competing undertakings;
Consultancy on the operation of distribution systems and the conclusion of exclusive distribution agreements;
Legal assistance and advice with a view to the prohibition of the abuse of monopoly or dominant position;
Assessment of the risk of occurrence of the conditions for control of the concentration of business, preparation of notifications and participation in the procedure for the issuance of permissions by the regulatory authority;
Provision of legal assistance and representation in litigation in cases of unfair competition;
Preparation of full due diligence reports on the business behaviour of economic operators in view of the compliance with competition rules;
Legal representation before the Commission for Protection of Competition and the Supreme Administrative Court in cases under the Competition Protection Act.