News

11 March 2025

“For years, the position of the Ombudsman Institution has been firm and against the increase in the prices of mobile operators, which, even if formally may be in line with the legal texts, causes additional difficulties and is detrimental to Bulgarian citizens as users of the services.” This was stated by the Secretary General of the Ombudsman Institution, Dr. Aysun Avdjiev, at a discussion on “Solution of Consumer Problems in the Communications Sector – Protection of Rights, Transparency and Balance between the Interests of the Business and Consumers”, organized at the initiative of the Commission for Consumer Protection.

Dr. Avdjiev was firm that as the general economic circumstances of the people have not been considered and taken into account, including the difficulties that they face with the increased prices of water, electricity as well as in adjusting their monthly budget to the new increasingly higher prices of a number of goods and services.

He emphasized that the Ombudsman’s administration has a longtime experience, gained on the basis of the complaints and reports received from aggrieved citizens. He informed that, on a significant part of these reports, the Ombudsman Institution has referred to the Commission for Consumer Protection and also to a number of other competent authorities.

“It is of particular importance for us that the institutions’ commitment to citizens’ complaints continues in order to provide effective protection of their rights as consumers,” Dr. Avdjiev said in a firm tone.

He made a brief retrospective review of what occurred and led to this and many other meetings and discussions on this subject.

He recalled that at the end of 2022, for the first time Yettel Bulgaria EAD announced that they would take advantage of the clause in their contracts for a one-time increase in service prices, based on the inflation index that is annually announced by the National Statistical Institute, and shortly after, Vivacom Bulgaria EAD and А1 Bulgaria EAD followed what Yettel did.

“Public discontent was not long in coming and the Ombudsman Institution began to receive numerous complaints and grievances from citizens. I would like to emphasize here that this clause has been incorporated for over ten years in the contracts and the General Terms and Conditions of operators. The Ombudsman then took a number of actions to protect the rights and interests of citizens: he wrote recommendations to the mobile operators to ask them not to apply indexation; he asked the then Commission for Consumer Protection (CCP) to conduct inspections for unfair clauses and unfair business practices, indicating specific arguments; he approached the Communications Regulation Commission and the Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Policies and Minister of Transport and Communications of a caretaker government. On 31 January 2023 a letter was sent to the Prime Minister of a caretaker government and to the Minister of Economy and Industry in that government to state that mobile service customers would have to pay increased prices without the right to renegotiate the terms of their contracts to obtain lower tariffs and without the possibility to terminate their contracts without any penalties. This is evidently unfair, the rights of citizens are not sufficiently protected; the parties to the contract are not on a par. In times of crisis and high inflation, it is necessary to provide support and protection to Bulgarian citizens by taking specific, urgent measures in order to prevent the increase of the prices of mobile services,” the Ombudsman’s Secretary General pointed out.

He added that at that time the Ombudsman approached the Chair of the Commission on Protection of Competition to take action within his/her competence.

In response, in the understanding of the then Commission on Protection of Competition, the indexation clauses are part of the contracts in effect with end users and here there is no unilateral change in the contract. That, is, they may not be termed unfair contracts as, according to the Electronic Communications Act (ECA) the operators are free to set their prices; the terms and conditions are clearly worded; the method for changing prices is described in detail and is tied up to an index that is beyond their influence. They assured that they would monitor the doings of mobile operators and the way in which they apply indexation.

The Communications Regulation Commission informed the Ombudsman that the CRC does not regulate retail prices and referred to an answer from the Court of the EU, according to which companies providing electronic communications services may have a legitimate interest to change their prices. They also noted that their inspection of mobile operators found that indexation was a clause of the contracts and the results of the inspection were sent to the Commission for Consumer Protection in order to assist its assessment of whether the indexation clause was unfair.

“To the Ombudsman’s question about the upcoming reduction in mobile operators’ fees, the CRC replied that it should not be linked to the change of the prices of their services. This is a tool of the government that leads to more revenue in the budget and better quality services and cannot be seen as a type of compensation and/or aid from the state,” Dr. Avdjiev added.

During the discussion, he emphasized that in 2023, mobile operators again indexed the prices of their customers’ services. And then, the Ombudsman expressed his firm opinion against this indexation and referred the matter to the Minister of Economy, insisting on a thorough and objective analysis of the presented arguments for an unfair clause in the contracts and unfair business practice, as well as the reasons why mobile operators for another year took advantage of the opportunity to increase their prices by means of indexation. In addition, the Ombudsman insisted on taking immediate action to stop this practice, including by legislative changes and approached the Minister of Economy and Industry to insist on a deep and objective analysis of the arguments presented regarding unequal contractual clause and unfair business practice as well.

“As a result, the Minister of Economy and Industry gave instructions to the Commission for Protection of Competition on the criteria that should be be taken into account when an analysis is made of the contracts of mobile operators, in order to clarify whether the clause for indexing the prices of services is unfair in the sense of the Consumer Protection Act,” Dr. Avdjiev recalls.

He also informed that on 5 February 2024, an open meeting of the CPC was held regarding the indexation of mobile fees, which was attended by the Chair of the Communications Regulation Commission, a representative of the Ministry of Economy and Industry, representatives of the Ombudsman and NGOs. There the Ombudsman’s opinion was that the indexation clause is unfair as it is not individually agreed, does not meet the requirement of good faith, leads to significant imbalance between the rights and obligations of the parties and does not allow consumers to assess the economic consequences of the conclusion of the contract.

Dr. Aysun Avdjiev also recalled another fact that on 21 February 2024, regarding price indexation, a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Subcommittee of Monitoring Activities in the Field of Consumer Protection and Restriction of Monopolies was convened, in which the Ombudsman participated. The meeting heard the Chair of the Commission for Consumer Protection and representatives of the mobile operators companies. He points out that the Chair of the Commission for Consumer Protection stated that in his opinion, the indexation clause is formally unfair, since there is no reciprocity – a change of prices is provided for only in the event of inflation, but not in the event of deflation. So he made a commitment that the Commission would make a decision on the case as soon as possible.

“Subsequently, with the Commission’s decision as documented in Record No. 7 of 18 March 2024, the Commission for Consumer Protection and the Alliance of Technology Industry (ATI) agreed that the terms of the consumer contracts of А1 Bulgaria EAD, Vivacom Bulgaria EAD and Yettel Bulgaria EAD concerning the indexation of monthly subscription and/or prices of electronic communications services should be worded with precision by the operators so as to provide for the following: Reciprocal reduction in the event of deflation reported by the National Statistical Institute for the previous calendar year. Setting ceilings, within +/–2%, where indexation is not employed, both in the event of inflation and deflation. The consumers’ right, in the event of an increase due to inflation, to terminate their contract for electronic communications services without a penalty due for services, while this right shall be exercised within a month from the announced starting date of indexation. Certain subscription plans and/or service prices may be excluded from the indexation, both in the event of inflation and deflation, and operators should upload them on their website,” Dr. Aysun Avdjiev informed.

He added that mobile operators should have changed their indexation clauses within three months, but not exceeding it, with changes that become effective at the start of this year.

“That is why, when at yearend 2024 and early 2025 Yettel and Vivacom announced their intention to increase prices (rather than index them), once again this led to discontent on the part of Bulgarian citizens. Unlike previous years, this time the operators actually gave the opportunity, within a month of the announcement of the intention, to anyone who wished to terminate their contract without charging a penalty. It is important to note here that А1 Bulgaria EAD firmly stated that the company “will not increase the prices of its services,” was the summary of the situation so far of the Secretary General of the Ombudsman.