Bulgaria’s Antitrust Regulator Fines Olinesa Premium

Bulgaria’s Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) announced that it has fined local edible oil and mayonnaise producer Olinesa Premium with some 1.5 million levs (US$917,198) for providing misleading information to customers, reported See News.

CPC imposed the fine, equal to 4% of Olinesa Premium’s net sales revenue for 2019, following a decision of a five-member bench of the Supreme Administrative Court to overturn a previous decision of a three-member bench and return the case to the regulator, the antitrust body said in a statement last week.

The competition authority imposed the fine, acting upon a complaint of local company Konsul, owner of mayonnaise production plant Krassi in the city of Plovdiv. Konsul argued that Olinesa Premium had labelled one of its products as “homemade mayonnaise,” thereby misleading customers about the ingredients used and the technology of production.

The regulator’s decision can be appealed before Sofia Region Administrative Court within 14 days from the date of its publication, which was November 25.

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