In 2013 the plaintiff launched an advertising campaign for promoting certain food products (yoghurt, honey and others) offered for sale in its supermarket chain in Bulgaria. The campaign involved TV commercials, outdoor advertising and distribution of brochures containing images of the goods and their brands under the leading slogan ‘The best from Bulgaria. The best from Europe’
As a result of certain consumers’ complaints, the Bulgarian Commission on Protection of Competition (which is the regulatory body responsible for enforcement of the national provisions transposing Directive 2006/114/EC) started an investigation in relation to this matter. In the course of the investigation, laboratory analysis of the food products which were provided by the plaintiff and the defendant established that the quality indices of the respective products were slightly above the minimum levels permitted by the applicable law. Accordingly, the Commission on Protection of Competition concluded that the advertising statement “the best from Bulgaria” is not correct in view of the fact that the respective goods were not objectively the best in their category in terms of their quantity and quality, and this way of representation is likely to deceive the consumers and affect their economic behaviour. In view of the above, the defendant issued a decision establishing that the advertising campaign constitutes misleading advertising and imposed pecuniary sanction on the plaintiff amounting to BGN 370,859 (approx. EUR 190.000)
The decision was upheld by the first instance court. As a final resort, the plaintiff appealed the first instance court judgment before the cassation instance, i.e. the Supreme Administrative Court.