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According to the latest amendments to the Bulgarian Copyright Act of 25 March 2011 all collecting societies active in Bulgaria during the last five years had to submit an application to the Minister of Culture for new registration in compliance with the new requirements of the law (see IRIS 2011-5/9). The term for applying expired on 25 May 2011, but the tariff for the fees due to the Ministry of Culture for the new registration was prepared by the Council of Ministers and entered into force in July 2011. On 27 October 2011 the Minister of Culture issued the first certificates under the new rules...

On 25 October 2011 the Bulgarian Commission on the Protection of Competition (Commission) found a violation of Art. 33, para. 2, item 1 in conjunction with Art. 32 of the Law on the Protection of Competition. The infringement was made by the Blizoo Media and Broadband company and the Commission imposed a penalty of BGN 30,379.00 (approximately EUR 15,000). The reason for the proceedings was a consumer’s notice on misleading advertising messages of the company in connection with its “Complete Package”-offer. The package includes digital television with over 150 programmes, internet and fixed telephony...

On 2 September 2011 the Central Election Commission, on the grounds of the Bulgarian Election Code presently in effect, adopted a resolution on the terms and conditions on which radio and television broadcasters shall report on the election campaigns for president and vice-president and municipal councils and mayors to be held on 23 October 2011. In summary the resolution contains the following rules: 1. The Bulgarian National Television (“BNT”) and the Bulgarian National Radio (“BNR”) shall report the election campaign in the form of statements, video clips, disputes, briefs, chronicles and other...

On 2 June 2011 the team of the Slavi Show, broadcast by the private national channel bTV, dedicated its daily episode to the candidacy of Mrs. Miglena Kuneva for president of the Republic of Bulgaria. The show was aired four days before Mrs. Kuneva’s candidacy was formally launched on 6 June 2011. On 3 June 2011, the management of the bTV Media Group stated that the publicity for Mrs. Kuneva in the Slavi Show had not been the subject of consultation with the company’s management as the Slavi Show is an outside production having its own independent editorial policy and all statements made in the...

On 24 August 2011 the relevant period under Art. 125v of the Radio and Television Act expired. This period concerns the submitting of evidence for the settlement of copyrights and neighbouring rights in transmitted TV programmes and the protected works included in these to the Council for Electronic Media (CEM) by the cable and satellite operators. This requirement of the law has existed since 2009, but its strict fulfillment has been postponed by the CEM several times with different reasoning. In February 2011 the CEM was informed by the Bulgarian Association of Cable Communication Operators (BACCO)...