The Commission on Protection of Competition (CPC), the Commission for Consumer Protection (CCP) and the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) have signed a cooperation agreement aimed at improving the coordination and synchronization of the actions of the three institutions to enhance their results in consumer protection and ensure transparency and effective competition in the market. The agreement creates a mechanism for joint actions, especially in the context of preventing unjustified increases in the prices of goods and services, before and after the introduction of the euro in the country, but will continue to operate thereafter.

"If each of the three regulators works separately and we do not coordinate our efforts, the meaning of our work is lost and the retail prices of telecommunications services are incorrectly affected. Over the past two weeks, the CRC has made agreements with all undertakings in the telecommunications sector, with which we have specified a working model. We did the same with the business in the field of courier and postal services. By uniting everyone's efforts, we can guarantee that there will be an opportunity to react to every case that raises doubts," said the Chairman of the CRC, Ivan Dimitrov.

"Today we are formalizing joint work that we started with the CRC months ago, with a focus on updating the strategic documents related to consumer protection. Thanks to the support of Mr. Dimitrov, the prices of mobile services will be included in the unified consumer portal - an initiative that aims for greater transparency and traceability by citizens. Other institutions are to be included in the portal in order to guarantee full information and peace of mind for consumers," said the President of the CCP, Maria Filipova. She added that together with the CRC, the rules for consumer protection in the electronic communications sector, adopted by a Decision of the CRC, have already been revised. An analysis of the individual contracts and general terms and conditions of all mobile operators is also forthcoming in order to further enhance consumer protection.

“The meaning of these agreements lies in their working mechanism. The process of introducing the euro is a catalyst that led to this agreement, but cooperation will continue after the introduction of the single European currency, it will multiply the effectiveness of the activities of the individual regulatory authorities and will convince the public of the meaning of their legal powers,” explained the Chairperson of the CPC, Associate professor, PhD in law Rosen Karadimov. He added that the antimonopoly regulator is about to begin a sectoral analysis of the telecommunications services market, building on the market analyses that the CRC carries out. “The meaning of this sectoral analysis is to fill those gaps in which the CRC does not have direct functions, but which the CPC can fill,” commented Karadimov.“