CEZ's acquisition approved after reassessment of prohibition

In a July 2020 decision, the Sofia Administrative Court repealed a decision of the Commission for the Protection of Competition (CPC) by which the Bulgarian competition regulator prohibited the sale of CEZ's assets. Following the Supreme Court's decision, in August 2020 the CPC reopened its in-depth review of the sale of CEZ's Bulgarian assets to Eurohold.

Based on the collected data in the course of the investigation, the CPC concluded that the merging of two large economic groups operating in the electricity and insurance sectors did not create or strengthen a dominant position of the affected markets in which the parties operate. The CPC unconditionally cleared the transaction. The CPC decision could be appealed within 14 days, starting from 30 October 2020.