In October 2017 the Supreme Administrative Court upheld the final decision of the Commission for the Protection of Competition, which found Praktiker unlawfully to acquire clients (Article 36, paragraph 4 of the LPC), and a imposed a pecuniary sanction of more than EUR 40, 000.

Praktiker is an international chain offering home improvement and do-it-yourself goods operating in Poland, Hungary, Romania, Ukraine, Greece and Bulgaria with revenue of approx. EUR €3.5 billion.

The Commission has found that, contrary to the prohibition of unfairly attracting customers, the company sells inflatable swimming pools and accessories to them, by specific article numbers and different sizes, through its shop network and the online store www.praktiker-online.bg throughout the entire territory of the country in the period from March to October 2013.

According to the facts of the CPC file and analysis Praktiker has sold significant quantities of the goods at prices below the cost of production and their realization over an extended period of time. This is a behavior that is capable of redirecting consumer demand due to the existence of a price advantage, contributing to unfairly attracting customers and damaging the interests of competitors, which is prohibited by the LPC.

Competition Authority in Bulgaria Penalized a Big International Chain for a Breach in 2013

Tzvetoslav Mitev, (Dr., LL.M.)

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