Bulgarian Watchdog Fines Cable TV Operator for Misleading Customers

Bulgaria's monopoly watchdog, the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC), has imposed a fine worth BGN 30 000 on leading cable operator Blizoo for deliberately advertising a misleading TV package.

A CPC investigation has shown that Blizoo advertised a package including "more than 150 TV channels", while, in reality, the channels were just 112.

The fine imposed on the cable operator constitutes a mere 0.03% of the company's net profit for 2010. The fine is so insignificant because Blizoo has only advertised the misleading product via leaflets and on the Internet, thus affecting a relatively smaller amount of customers.

If the violation was more serious, the monopoly watchdog could have fined the company with 2% of its annual net profit, the Dnevnik daily points out.

The brand Blizoo was born after Bulgaria's top cable providers Eurocom and CableTel merged last year.

Sweden-based private equity firm EQT acquired two of Bulgaria's major cable TV and Internet operators in a EUR 210 M deal at the end of October 2009 and merged them in mid-May 2010 to form the country's biggest cable operator.

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