EU Regulations, Competition and Antitrust

Penev LLP’s lawyers advise domestic and international clients on all aspects of EU regulations, Competition and Antitrust laws. We counsel clients on major mergers and acquisitions (M&A) that need clearance from the Bulgarian Competition Authority and we guide them through the entire clearance procedure.

Penev LLP also ensures that high-value agreements between international and local parties are concluded and implemented in compliance with EU and national competition laws. Our experience covers administrative proceedings held before the Competition Authority as well as litigation with respect to unfair competition and alleged antitrust violations.

Our lawyers provide integrated solutions to competition-related business and litigation issues by working with the firm’s other practice groups.

We offer expertise in all key competition areas including:

• Cartels;

• Antitrust Rules and Policy;

• Agreements and Trade Practices;

• Mergers and Acquisitions;

• Competition and Consumer Protection Prosecutions;

• Competition Litigation;

• Dawn-raid Training and Assistance.

Some of our track record includes:

• advice on obtaining clearance from the Commission for Protection of Competition on numerous high profile M&A transactions; for more information, please refer to our M&A and Corporate practice;
   
• we acted as the exclusive provider of legal services to the Delegation of the European Commission to Bulgaria as of 1997 until 2007 when Bulgarian became a member state and the representation has been transformed into an information office. In this relation we have developed specific in-depth knowledge and expertise in all matters relating to competition and antitrust, funding programs, harmonization of local legislation and applicability of EU norms and regulations;
   
• providing various regulatory reports and legal updates on a regular basis to World Bank Group;
   
• advice on competition matters to Deutsche Telekom, Warburg Pinkus, Turk Telecom, Charlemagne Capital Limited (UK), Candover (UK), Turkcell in various procedures related to the acquisition of shares of the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC);
   
• Penev LLP has been the leading counsel on the merger between Alpha Bank (Greece) and EFG Eurobank (Greece) in Bulgaria. We provided comprehensive advice on M&A and anti-trust matters as well as representation before the Commission on Protection of Competition and the Bulgarian National Bank;
   
• provision of full scope advice on competition matters to Societe Generale in the acquisition of Express Bank;
   
• Penev LLP has provided comprehensive legal advice to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on various projects in Bulgaria;
   

• advice to Westinghouse Electric Corporation on competition law;

• we have successfully completed an arbitration procedure for a domain name of one of world's largest entertainment companies on the grounds of violation of competition rules;
   
• legal advice to Birmingham City University regarding Erasmus + Program with International Management Institute; 
   
• advice and representation of passengers of ClaimIt for receiving due compensations under the Flight Compensation Regulation;
   
• advising Antenna on the sale of the second rated TV Channel Nova Television to the media group of Modern Times Group on all aspects of the transaction, including but not limited to competition compliance and other regulatory matters, corporate and commercial aspects of the transaction;
   
• provision of advice to corporate, commercial, and competition issues to Zagorka (Heineken group) and representation before the Commission on Protection of Competition in relation to Company’s advertising and promotion campaigns;
   
• comprehensive advice to Deutsche Bank on regulatory assignments;
   
• representation of a consortium of the largest privately owned ISP companies in Bulgaria (Orbitel JSC and Nexcom Bulgaria JSC) in a huge lawsuit before the Commission on the Protection of Competition on VOIP matters;
   
• Penev LLP has represented a number of its clients, e.g., Nestle, some of the world largest advertising companies – TBWA, DDB Needham,  in unfair competition proceedings and has acted in some of the largest cases before the Commission on Protection of Competition;
   
• provision of advice to Selex Sistemi Integrati (former Marconi Systems) in relation to a project with the  Air Traffic Control Services Authority involving national and European funding;
   
• advising Soros Investment Capital Ltd. on regulatory and competition matters.