Kambourov & Partners’ competition team, led by managing partner Stefan Tzakov and including associates Elena Apostolova and Plamen Yotov, successfully defended Lidl in two proceedings before the Bulgarian Commission on Protection of Competition (CPC). The proceedings pertained to alleged infringements of the novel Art. 37a of the Bulgarian Protection of Competition Act (PCA), which prohibits abuse of stronger bargaining position. In the first case the CPC found that the alleged conduct did not fall into the temporal scope of Art. 37a PCA. In the second case the CPC concluded that Lidl was in no stronger bargaining position vis-à-vis the applicant and the conduct of Lidl did not amount to an abuse.
To date there have been only three decisions applying Art. 37a PCA. In May 2016 the CPC sanctioned Siemens by virtue of the first ever decision applying the novel statutory provision. Тhe two decisions of the CPC in the proceedings against Lidl are the only ones so far to find no infringement of Art. 37a PCA by the respondent.