Bulgaria’s Parliament approves amendments to Euro Adoption Act
Bulgaria’s Parliament voted on July 30 to approve the second and final reading of amendments to the Euro Adoption Act.
The legislation concerns steps to be taken in the run-up to and after Bulgaria’s adoption of the euro as its currency as of January 1 2026.
In their first-reading form, the amendments drew strenuous objections from the private sector and leading economists for their vagueness, the suspicion that they could be exploited for abuse of power, and that they reintroduced aspects of a command economy in a country that turned its back on such practices more than three decades ago.
The Cabinet billed the amendments as enabling protection of consumers from unscrupulous traders seeking to abuse the entry of the euro to gouge prices. The bill, approved at relatively high speed ahead of Parliament’s summer recess, attracted criticism that its measures could be used selectively against businesses out of favour with those in power.
In their final form, the amendments reduce the period for enhanced price control to be from August 8 2025 to August 8 2026. The initial version had envisaged an end date of December 31 2026.
For the first two months – up to October 8 – businesses will have a grace period during which they will not be fined for breaching the Act.
During this grace period, businesses must arrange everything related to dual labelling of prices and receipts in leva and euro.
Labels of prices must be “accompanied by the indication of the relevant currency, a distinctive sign or abbreviation, made in a font of the same size, type and colour, allowing for them to be easily recognised”.
The Cabinet will be able, without requiring the consent of Parliament, to take measures and impose rules in the event of excessive price increases, but only in relation to goods and services from the small consumer basket.
a definition is given of “essential goods and services” – a limited set of basic consumer goods and services such as food products (such as bread, milk, eggs, flour, cooking oil), drinking water, electricity and heating for household needs, prescription medicines and basic personal hygiene products.
In the second-reading version of the amendments, the Cabinet may adopt temporary measures “in the presence of extraordinary circumstances that have led to a sharp and significant increase in the prices of essential goods and services” . The reasons for the measures must contain an impact analysis, a period of validity and an accountability mechanism.
Those who increase prices during the period provided for in the amendments without “objective economic reasons” will face serious penalties.
In the case of legal entities and sole traders, the fine will be from 5000 to 10 000 leva, rising to 10 000 to 200 000 leva in the event of repeat offences.
For those with a turnover exceeding 50 million leva in the previous year, the initial fine will be 0.5 per cent of turnover, rising to up to one per cent in the event of a repeat offence, though the amendments set a ceiling for the fine of one million leva.
The amendments confer on the Consumer Protection Commission and the National Revenue Agency the power to assess whether a price increase is justified or not.
They will have to publish up-to-date information on the prices of basic food products every day, and the Consumer Protection Commission will collect this information and publish it on a specially provided online portal.
On request of the control authorities, traders must provide information on whether the price change is based on justified economic factors.
MPs voted thatpersons providing taxi transportation of passengers must comply with the obligation to dually display prices as of October 31 2025. Earlier, there were objections from the industry that it would not be able to do this as of August 8.
The dual indication of the selling price of books, textbooks, teaching aids and other printed works, including educational books and learning sets, children’s books with illustrations, for drawing or colouring, printed or handwritten sheet music editions, begins on January 1 2026.
A provision that allowed inspectors to search any company premises – production premises, shops, warehouses, offices, offices, premises and places where accounting, commercial and other documents or information carriers are stored – was withdrawn between the first and second readings of the amendments.
In debate, economist Martin Dimitrov, an MP for the opposition We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria coalition, said that only the market can reduce prices, not the imposition of a ceiling on markups.
“The only good thing in this bill is the texts that are adopted for chains to publish prices and for them to be summarised by the Consumer Protection Commission,” Dimitrov said.
He said that the aggregated information that the control authorities will provide on the prices of goods should not be averaged, but individual. In addition, small traders should also be able to publish data on goods that they assess, as he believes this will strengthen competition and minimize opportunities for speculation.
Daniel Lorer of WDC-DB saw a problem in the authorities’ attempts to curb price increases.
Lorer said that the definitions in the law remain unclear, since, “market mechanisms require changes in the course and they must correspond to what Bulgarian producers offer to traders”.
The head of Parliament’s budget and finance committee, Delyan Dobrev of Boiko Borissov’s GERB-UDF coalition, said that the amendments are “a symbiosis that enables the protection of consumers, but at the same time does not put business under pressure”.
(Photo via the evroto.bg official information website)
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