Borislav Boyanov & Co.

A Scholarship Award for the Sixth Edition of the Balkan Legal Forum, 11-12 November 2010, Sofia, Bulgaria

bnv_admin — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:22:05 +0000

This year the Legal Development Foundation will award three scholarships to young lawyers who wish to participate in the Sixth Edition of the Balkan Legal Forum, but may find financial difficulties in doing so.

A Scholarship Award for 2010 includes free registration for the Sixth Edition of the Balkan Legal Forum, 11-12 November 2010, Sofia, Bulgaria;

The deadline for submissions is Friday, 15 October 2010.

The applicants shall be under the age of 30 and shall send a CV, an essay in the English language (no more than 1,300 words) on the topic “SOUTH EAST EUROPE – REVIVING OPPORTUNITIES” and a filled in Scholarship Application Form to mail@balkanlegalforum.com

For further information please download the Scholarship Application Form here.

For full and further information regarding the Sixth Edition of the Balkan Legal Forum, please click here.

The International Comparative Legal Guide to: International Arbitration 2010

bnv_admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 10:30:36 +0000

This article appeared in the 2010 edition of The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Pharmaceutical Advertising; published by Global Legal Group Ltd, London.

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Registration for Balkan Legal Forum 2010 is now open

bnv_admin — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 12:15:26 +0000

The Organisers of the Sixth Edition of Balkan Legal Forum 2010 are happy to inform you that the registration for Balkan Legal Forum 2010 is now open. For more information on the registration process and the program of the Forum, please visit the official website of the Forum http://www.balkanlegalforum2010.com or contact us at mail@balkanlegalforum.com.

We look forward to seeing you in Sofia.

Changes to Labor Law Abolish Paid Leave Carry-over

bnv_admin — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 12:30:54 +0000

Following much debate the changes proposed by the government in Bulgaria’s Labor Code finally came into effect on July 30, 2010. Under the new regime, employees must use their paid annual leave by the end of the calendar year to which it refers, and will not be entitled to carry it over into future years and respectively get compensated for carried-over leave upon termination of their employment. However, a part of the paid annual leave, amounting to not more than 10 working days (more in cases of sickness, pregnancy etc.), may be deferred by the employer to the next calendar year due to important production reasons. In that case, the entitlement will have to be used in the next calendar year to which it is deferred.
Any unused paid annual leave accumulated until January 1, 2010 for previous calendar years can be used only until December 31, 2011.

The changes address a serious contingent liability issue for Bulgarian companies and other employers, which had to accrue provisions for unused paid leave carried over from previous years. In some companies that resulted in significant amounts being allocated, due to the fact that employees had accumulated significant unused paid leave entitlement, which had to be compensated upon termination (including retirement) based on the current salary level of the employee.

Competition Authority Rejects Dominance Complaint on Tying in the Pay-TV and Telephony Markets

bnv_admin — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 12:09:33 +0000

The Bulgarian Commission for the Protection of Competition rejected a complaint brought by the Bulgarian Telecommunications Company, Bulgaria’s incumbent telecom, against CableTel, a prominent local Pay-TV, internet and telephony operator (now operating under the Blizoo brand) on alleged abuse of dominance by reasons of tying and bundling of Pay-TV services and telephony offers. The Commission challenged the complainant’s claim that CableTel is indeed dominant in the Pay-TV market, and further found that the offers of the respondent were not abusive, even if reviewed under an assumption of dominance.

Borislav Boyanov & Co. represented CableTel throughout the proceedings before the Commission. The firm’s team was lead by partner Peter Petrov.

The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Pharmaceutical Advertising 2010

bnv_admin — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:46:14 +0000

This article appeared in the 2010 edition of The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Pharmaceutical Advertising; published by Global Legal Group Ltd, London.

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Interest Rate Calculation Method is Fixed at Entry into the Credit Agreement, according to the Amended Consumer Credit Act

bnv_admin — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:04:37 +0000

The Parliament adopted at its meeting today amendments in the Consumer Credit Act. They provide that the banks cannot unilaterally change the methodology for calculating the interest rate after entry into the credit agreement.

The MPs agreed that creditors must publish on their website the current rate of the reference interest rates used by them and the methodology for determining the reference interest rate. The creditor is also obliged to maintain on its website data on the value of any reference interest rates, which it has identified.

Sickness Benefits Burden is Temporarily Shifted to Employers

bnv_admin — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:59:09 +0000

The Bulgarian Parliament adopted the proposal of the government to temporarily shift the financial burden for payment of sickness benefits for the first three days of sickness of employees.

By an addition to the Transitional and Final Provisions of the Social Insurance Code, for the period up to 31 December 2010, the employer will be obliged to pay to the employee for the first, second and third working day of the temporary disability. The amount of the compensation per each of the three days will be 70% of the average daily gross pay for the month in which sickness occurred, but not less than 70% of the average daily pay agreed.

At the end of the year, the temporary provision will cease to apply and the regulation is expected to revert to the previous situation, where the sickness benefits were entirely covered by the social security system for the period after the first day of sickness (the employer being responsible for the payment for the first day).

The temporary amendment is reasoned by the government with the difficulties of the social security system to cope with the payment of sickness benefits at the moment, and the fact that some employers apparently encourage abuse by employees during stoppages of work.

European Commission Refers Partially Lidl’s Proposed Acquisition of the Plus Supermarket Chain in Bulgaria to the National Competition Authority

bnv_admin — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 13:54:52 +0000

The European Commission announced that it has referred the assessment of the acquisition of Plus Bulgaria by the German retailer Lidl to the competition authority of Bulgaria, at its request. After a preliminary investigation, the European Commission found that the proposed transaction would affect competition in the Bulgarian local market for daily consumer goods. It believes that the Bulgarian competition authority is well-placed to investigate the effect of the transaction on its local market under national law.

Plus Bulgaria is a daily consumer goods retailer. Lidl is buying them from German retail group Tengelmann. Lidl itself is a German discount chain that belongs to the Schwarz group, a German retailer operating more than 9,000 stores in 23 countries in Europe, including in Bulgaria.

Borislav Boyanov & Co. represents Lidl in Bulgaria in respect of the transaction.

The Supreme Administrative Court ruled that in Bulgaria attorneys-at-law can jointly perform their profession only in the form of law firms and lawyers’ partnerships registered with the Bar

bnv_admin — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 07:43:44 +0000

On June 2, 2010 the 5-member panel of the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) finally ruled on the competition case initiated some two years ago by Bulgarian law firms against several commercial companies which have been established in Bulgaria by or with the participation of foreign lawyers, and have been acting as law firms without being registered as such. The final SAC ruling confirmed the interpretation of 2004 Bar Act which the Bulgarian law firms sustained that attorneys-at-law can jointly exercise their legal profession only in the form of law firms or lawyers’ partnerships registered with the Bulgarian Bar, and that it is a violation of the Protection of the Competition Act to perform the legal profession by a commercial company, escaping the special obligations and liabilities of attorneys-at-law vis-à-vis their clients and thus gaining unfair advantage over registered law firms and lawyers’ partnerships.