Publication: Addressing Unfair Trading Practices in Bulgaria
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2014-04-30
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2014-04-30
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The Government of Bulgaria (GoB) is concerned that large retail chains may be using their superior bargaining position to dictate the terms of contractual relations with their suppliers. The Government believes that this constitutes unfair trading practices (UTP) and remedies should be found in the nation's competition policy framework. The GoB is considering the introduction of the concept of significant market power (SMP) into the competition legislation. To address the UTP issues in business to business (B2B) relations in the buyer supplier relations, the Minister of Finance of the GoB asked the World Bank in end-October 2013 for technical support in the area of competition. In November 2013, the task was further specified and the GoB asked the World Bank to explore how and whether the SMP concept, anchored in the competition policy framework, will effectively address UTP in B2B relations. The World Bank organized a technical workshop, titled significant market power and unfair trading practices: issues and challenges in collaboration with the office of the Deputy Prime Minister for economic development and the Bulgarian commission for protection of competition. The workshop presented the mixed success of international practices in addressing unfair trading practices. The World Bank analyzed European Union (EU) member state policies in addressing unfair trading practices against the following criteria: effectiveness, alignment with economic principles, adaptability, efficiency and timeliness, and analytically based, dependent, transparent, contestable, and reversible practice with due process. Additionally, the World Bank provided an economic assessment of how implementable and effective the significant market power will be to address unfair trading practices using competition policy. This assessment is based on the economic principles provided by the European commission guidelines, that is, take corrective action when abusive behavior harms consumers, not competitors.
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“World Bank. 2014. Addressing Unfair Trading Practices in Bulgaria. © http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19049 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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