The Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria, after agreeing with the member companies of the organization on the draft law submitted to us for opinion, expresses the following principled position:
According to the expressed opinion of KRIB members, the presented bill has the following positive aspects:
- Such a merger of the commissions for the protection of competition and for the protection of consumers is in view of the permanent trends in Europe - in some of the most developed or fastest developing countries in the EU, the merger of the two commissions is already a fact, and more and more other countries are point to this resolution of the problem
- A possible merger and the raising of the status of the Consumer Protection Commission to a higher level - from an administrative body to an independent regulator - will have a positive effect in the direction of protecting the rights of consumers, guaranteeing the quality of the control and its independence from the executive power
- Unequivocal signals will be given to businesses that the protection of consumer rights by ensuring fair competition will be a priority for the state
- Each problem will be examined more comprehensively and interrelatedly - simultaneously in its two aspects - on the rules of fair competition and on the violation of consumer rights
- Duplication and overflow of the actions of the CPC and the CPC, as is currently the case, will be avoided
- After the merger, it is expected to shorten the administration and save budget funds
In addition, the bill does not answer the following questions:
- How will it be guaranteed that the merger will not be formal and that the various sub-structures of the new Commission for the Protection of Competition and Consumers will achieve the objectives of the law and will be able to ensure a comprehensive and thorough solution to the problems both in the aspect of guaranteeing the rights of consumers and in the aspect of creating a loyal and competitive business environment, and in terms of ensuring legality and transparency in public procurement
- How will objectivity, independence and loyalty be guaranteed in each of the three areas of the Commission - protection of competition, protection of consumers and public procurement and concessions - and of its members, since each of these sub-structures is called upon to protect different interests - of the business, the citizen-consumers, the state
- Will such a mega-structure really be more economical and save budget costs, especially since it foresees the expansion of the management staff with one general leadership - chairman and members of the CPEC - and separately vice-chairmen, and also the existing units of the CPEC in the country will need to be expanded to cover the other functions of the commission
- What will be the quality of the work of the Commission, provided that for a complex solution of the problems it is assumed, and it is mandatory, that high qualification and knowledge of each employee of this structure is required both in the field of competition and in the field of protection of the users
- How this structure will connect with the financial ombudsman figure prescribed and required in the near future by the EC
As a conclusion, we consider that the idea and approach of creating a common regulatory body in the field of three areas so essential for the economy and social life is acceptable, but it requires more thorough preparation, more detailed and informal legal regulation, with more guarantees for realization of the set goals.
The goal declared in the draft law "as an independent regulator, the newly created body is a natural balancer in the relations between the state, business and consumers" could be achieved only after thorough analyzes of the current problems in the discussed areas, a specific study of the most advanced European practices and a detailed description in the law of the functions, duties and responsibilities of the new structure at all its levels.
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