The well-known to our society, 35-year-old vicious practice of secretly changing Laws and Regulations in August in favor of "our companies" is underway again, without real public discussion, without the opinion of the Chief Architect of Sofia, behind the back of the Mayor, hidden from industry organizations and citizens and without consulting them, writes vevesti.bg.
That is exactly how the report to Mr. Tsvetomir Petrov - Chairman of the Sofia Municipal Council, signed by six members of the Municipal Council, was prepared, as follows: which reflects the proposed changes in the regulation on advertising activities.
The report was uploaded suspiciously secretly to the website of the Sofia Municipality on 13.08.2025, when it was “published“ for public discussion. It was published in such a way that even the employees of the Sofia Municipality and the National Advertising Agency, as well as the municipal councilors from the Social Security Administration, would have difficulty finding it, let alone interested citizens and companies.
It is an absolute precedent that for the first time in the new, 35-year history of the Sofia Municipality, a working group has not been formed to discuss upcoming changes to this Regulation. None of the industry organizations has been asked for opinions and statements in connection with the upcoming changes to the regulatory framework of the Sofia Municipality. These are all facts that in themselves raise suspicions of overt lobbying.
The amendment undertaken The report of the municipal councilors does not provide a clear analysis of the subsequent effects on the outdoor advertising market and a generalized analysis of the economic and social consequences on numerous condominiums and companies operating in the advertising market in the Capital.
There is a lack of a clearly justified opinion as to what necessitates the change of these proposed texts, and not others that have been commented on as controversial in previous procedures for amending the regulation.
The planned current changes to the Regulation are hidden behind the slogan "to clean Sofia of advertising", but it is clear that real problems with visual pollution are not being solved, but rather the status quo is being strengthened in favor of "our companies", which have enjoyed comfort in the Sofia Municipality for three decades.
How exactly will Sofia be "cleaned up" with these planned changes:
The noisy "cleaning" of Sofia from advertising is the planned ban on advertising on building facades and roof-mounted illuminated signs. The two advertising formats that are the only ones that fit architecturally into the urban environment and help condominiums maintain their buildings from rents, from them. Roof-mounted advertising facades and roof-mounted signs represent less than 5% of the total number of advertising facilities in Sofia. On the other hand, with the planned changes to the Regulation, "cleaning" the Capital of this 5% of advertising, in practice an opportunity will be opened for an increase in the share of the remaining 95% of advertising in the Capital, which is formed by billboards on municipal and private terrains, and public transport stops. As they will increase by up to 30% compared to their current volumes. It is precisely these same advertising elements that have become a forest of steel hanging over every metropolitan boulevard.
Also, the new amendments to the Regulation provide for a more relaxed administrative regime for obtaining permits for billboards and bus stops. It is also strange that it is planned to eliminate the possibility of controlling the construction of external electrical connections to them. An issue that had a huge public response years ago after an unfortunate incident caused by an arbitrarily powered movable object in the Capital. The “invisible hand“ is visible, which has been supporting certain business interests in the field of outdoor advertising in Sofia for years.
The opaque approach of the municipal councilors and all the planned changes in the regulatory framework for outdoor advertising hint at a lobbying move. But for whose benefit?
When checking which companies operate with advertising elements rented by Sofia Municipality, to which the new amendments provide comfort, it becomes clear that at the moment there is one advertising agency and a number of companies related to it, all owned by the oligarch Lyubomir Pavlov. The advertising agency in question, which has enjoyed over 30 years of comfort in Sofia Municipality, will not only be given the opportunity to expand the volume of advertisements it operates with, but will also receive a simplified regime for issuing permits. Thus, it will quietly and without much noise consolidate its current favorable position as a monopolist in Sofia. As a bonus, an administrative obstacle will be removed for it, preventing Sofia Municipality from reviewing files and issuing permits to violators. It is precisely such texts that are planned to be removed from the current standard. Lyubomir Pavlov's companies hold 100% of all municipal advertising spaces at public transport stops. 70% of the billboards on municipal land are also his, as are 60% of the billboards on private land in the capital, and not a small part of them are illegal.
The fact that the repeated insistence of the advertising industry to hold an open competition for the allocation of advertising positions at the stops remains unheeded also raises great doubts, as the Sofia Municipality has not organized one for 30 years. Also, a competition for free-standing advertising cassettes up to 2 m² (citylight) has not been held for over 15 years. From this unrealized competition for citylight alone, the Sofia Municipality has lost revenue from rents in the amount of over 36,000,000 leva. Thus, the status quo has been casually reinforced for over 30 years through the municipality's passivity, for not holding competitions and through lobbying changes and maneuvers in various Normative Acts.
The question also arises as to why all advertising elements that are municipal property continue to be used by a private company for nothing, without a competition and without even a ghostly announced operator.
The suspicions of lobbying are fueled by the fact that the restrictions only affect the two advertising formats in which the company, a monopolist on municipal land, has no business interests - tarpaulins and roof advertising. And the planned changes affect precisely these, formats that are not municipal but private cooperatives. This doubt is also strengthened by the reasons presented by the municipal councilors who submitted the report. According to their motives, roof advertising is dangerous, but not the one located on corporate buildings and defined as company signs. It turns out in practice that only these advertisements on private cooperatives are dangerous?!
Thus, with this lobbying move, a favor is being done to Pavlov – monopoly and undisputed leadership on the part of “JC Deco Image“ in Sofia. All this is beautifully “Packaged” in loud PR slogans like “we are cleaning Sofia of advertising“.
Will the Sofia Municipality administration ever set fair rules for business and citizens, predictability of the future, security in the market, and will it get out of the coterie of “our companies“, and give a level playing field and a clean competitive environment in the private sector, so that we can truly talk about a “free market“?
Why isn't the question of the most obvious visual noise being raised - the chatter of the city's ground floor, only part of which are: indiscriminate placement of advertising-bearing freezers on the sidewalks, which in the summer number over 40,000. Advertising awnings above every cafe or shop, and there are over 70,000 such objects. Various advertising messages flood us from every shop window in a variety of shapes and forms, from illuminated signs, foils, LED screens and what not. Countless advertising messages such as “apartment for sale“, “dentist on the 3rd floor“, “lawyer on the 6th floor“, etc., have been irradiating us from the facades of buildings for decades, even though they have been banned for over 15 years. All examples of visual noise that distances us from Europe and classifies us more as belonging to the Near and Far East.