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Bulgaria: Regulator fines electricity distributors over access to utility poles

By  |  June 2, 2015

Bulgaria’s Commission for Protection of Competition said on June 2 that it has fined the country’s three electricity distribution firms a combined 1.17 million leva for unfair trade practices in restricting the access of cable TV and internet service providers to utility poles.

The regulator handed the largest fines to Czech CEZ Distribution, which operates in western Bulgaria, and Austria’s EVN Distribution, which services southern and south-eastern Bulgaria, at 558 400 leva and 441 400 leva, respectively. Czech firm Energo-Pro Grid, which services northern and north-eastern Bulgaria, was fined 167 300 leva.

The fines come more than a year after CPC found the three companies guilty of engaging in unfair trade practices, issuing a final ruling without right of appeal. Unlike that ruling, the fines can be appealed at the Supreme Administrative Court, the regulator said.

Full content: The Sofia Globe

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