Bulgaria anti-trust regulator accuses electricity distribution firms of unfair trade practices
Bulgaria’s Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) said on July 6 that the country’s three electricity distribution providers engaged in unfair trade practices by sharing client information between their distribution and trading subsidiaries.
The three utilities – owned by Austria’s EVN, which services southern Bulgaria, Czech CEZ (in western Bulgaria) and Energo-Pro (in northern Bulgaria) – all applied common strategies and practices within each group, which “discriminated against independent traders outside the respective groups and restrict electricity trading on the free market,” the regulator said in a statement.
“By sharing within their own groups significant information about their clients moving from the regulated market to the free market, and by slowing down the issuance of necessary paperwork, the companies are impeding the process of changing providers,” CPC said.
The three electricity distributors will be access to CPC’s documentation and will have 30 days to submit any objections to the ruling and they can also request a public hearing at the CPC.
(Photo: greenhitma/sxc.hu)