We provide legal advice and services covering all aspects of Competition and State Aid including:
- advice on anti-trust rules and policy, compliance assessment of agreements and practices
- cartel cases
- abuse of dominant position cases
- merger cases, preparation of merger notifications and clearance of concentrations
- representation before the Commission on Protection of Competition and the Bulgarian court
- joint-venture agreements, strategic alliances and other co-operative arrangements
- competition issues related to distributorship and agency agreements, setting up of distribution networks
- unfair competition practices and violations
- advice on marketing strategies compliant with the rules of competition
- State Aid notifications and cases
Relevant experience
Our firm’s recent experience in anti-trust, merger, unfair competition and state aid cases includes:
- representation of a leading European retailer within a cartel and abuse of dominant position investigation of the Commission on Protection of Competition
- consulting of a food retailer with respect to the international merger of direct competitors
- national merger notifications for foreign-to-foreign mergers having impact in Bulgaria, such as the merger of one of the largest copper and gold producers worldwide in a multi billion transaction
- advising a major Japanese corporation regarding the establishment of a foreign-to-foreign joint venture having impact in Bulgaria
- consulting an Austrian food producer with respect to the competition law implications of the acquisition of equity in a Bulgarian competitor
- advising an Austrian company on the establishment of a joint venture in Bulgaria
- preliminary analysis and preparation of a merger notification for an Austrian bank with respect to the merger of a Bulgarian subsidiary with other financial institutions
- advising some of the largest Austrian investment funds on competition issues regarding their real estate development projects in Bulgaria
- advising a state-owned railway company on various state aid issues
- analyzing the possibilities for state aid recovery in the bankruptcy proceedings of a major heavy industry enterprise