site.btaRegulator Can Control Mobile Operators' Charges, Says Consumer Watchdog Chair

If the Communications Regulation Commission (CRC) together with the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) consider that mobile operators have a significant impact on retail prices on the market for electronic communications services, the CRC could control prices as long as necessary, according to a position paper by the head of the Commission for Consumer Protection (CCP) Maria Filipova.

While fully protecting the interests of consumers, the CCP will assist both institutions in accordance with its legal powers, the position reads. Filipova says that she wants to draw the attention of the people who make and change the laws in Bulgaria to this problem and hopes for their immediate understanding. It is possible to provide that for the duration of the contract the price should not be changed unilaterally by the operator, except in the presence of serious economic reasons, Filipova points out. 

She is adamant that as long as she heads the CCP, she will defend people's interests to the end and will give publicity to everything that she believes "harms, robs, misleads and deceives" them.

According to her, the situation with annual and almost simultaneous price increases by mobile operators is extremely worrying. "For the sole purpose of making more profit, the price hikes are putting people in limbo and in complete inability to access the services provided by the mobile operators. Against the backdrop of the difficult economic situation, I consider this behaviour to be absolute disregard for people's financial and physical survival. The problem is big and affects the whole of society, regardless of age and social status," the position reads.