“The heads of the retail chains have lost all sense of proportion,” Maya Manolova, chairwoman of the Commission for Consumer Protection, said in an interview with the public broadcaster, bTV reported.
“The victims of the unfair practices of the retail chains are both Bulgarian food producers and Bulgarian consumers. There is cooperation between the CPC, the Commission for Protection of Competition, the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency and the National Revenue Agency,” Manolova explained.
She also commented on the €76 million fine imposed on Kaufland.
“Bulgarian food producers are being crushed, which is why I consider the fine imposed by the Commission for Protection of Competition entirely fair,” Manolova said.
The CPC, for its part, imposed financial sanctions amounting to €100,000 on retail chains within a single day — Friday, November 13.
“They are provided for in the legislation on unfair commercial practices — fake promotions, a discrepancy between the price displayed on the shelf and the price paid by the consumer, or misleading information about the origin of products, as well as an exceptionally high charge for a plastic bag at one retail chain. We established that the retail chains sell the same products from the same product category, but from different suppliers, with different markups, which is absolutely prohibited under the Protection of Competition Act. This is a serious violation of the rules of competition. It is punishable by a fine of up to 10% of turnover. What the chains allow themselves to do in Bulgaria, they do not allow themselves to do in any other European country. That is why the sanctions here should also be more serious — ‘deterrent’, as the European Commission puts it. Only in Bulgaria have the retail chains comfortably established themselves in city centers,” she stressed.
Manolova also noted that there are many complaints against mobile operators.
“There are hundreds of thousands at the CPC. They are related to unfair commercial practices, as well as to the unfair clauses included in the operators’ general terms and conditions. I insist that the mobile operators remove these unfair clauses from their general terms and conditions themselves,” she said.
According to her, if they fail to do so, Manolova plans to file lawsuits in court to compel them to remove the clauses.
According to her, the other major problem is the prices of non-prescription medicines.
“These include numerous products that people buy at pharmacies — syrups, drops, immune boosters and vitamins. The prices of all of them are set in a very arbitrary and unrestricted manner. In reality, there are no rules whatsoever. An importer of a given medicinal product that has been granted marketing authorization effectively determines the maximum price at which the medicine will be sold. Together with the Ministry of Health, we reviewed how the prices of non-prescription medicines are regulated in other European countries. We have drafted a bill that will establish rules for setting them. This will certainly lead to lower prices,” the chairwoman of the CPC commented.
Manolova also reminded listeners that she is the author of the Personal Assistance Act.
“The tents in front of parliament stood for nearly eight months. By putting pressure on the authorities, we managed to fight for this law. Mothers are a great force. No government should try to treat them disrespectfully, especially mothers of children with disabilities. Every change must be made together with them,” she said.