Amendments to the Electronic Communications Act: Consumer Rights

The Parliament adopted key amendments to the Electronic Communications Act, which will significantly impact over three million mobile service users. The decision, voted on second reading, includes the right to refuse price indexation by mobile operators, providing consumers with more freedom and choice. The news was announced by the Bulgarian National Radio.

The debate in Parliament focused on consumer protection in contracts with mobile operators and the implementation of the European Digital Services Act. The main emphasis was placed on the bill proposed by Martin Dimitrov of PP - DB. According to this bill, in the event of a unilateral price increase by mobile operators, consumers will have the right to terminate their contract without being bound by penalties.

According to Martin Dimitrov, over three million subscribers will be able to take advantage of this new right. He emphasized that this is an important breakthrough that will contribute to greater choice and competition in Bulgarian society. "This is an important breakthrough, a good deed in the direction of people having more choice and more competition in Bulgarian society, being able to choose, to refuse, and accordingly, mobile operators know that you are not theirs for the entire two-year term", he stressed. In the long term, competition is expected to intensify with the entry of more virtual operators.

The changes also received support from the group of "Vazrazhdane". MP Nikola Dimitrov noted that such a mechanism existed only as a contractual practice so far. He proposed extending the period in which consumers can assess the price increase from the different operators. "Let's make a longer period of three months, in which consumers can actually see all operators with exactly how much they index prices, as we know that operators do not do it with the same percentage", he said.

Despite the adopted changes, the proposal of Bozhidar Bozhanov, which aimed to end the practices hindering the portability of telephone numbers, was not approved. This proposal provided for a ban on mobile operators refusing portability upon termination of a contract, regardless of which party initiated the termination.

During the debates, Ivaylo Chorov from "Vazrazhdane" expressed concerns that some of the provisions contain the potential for the introduction of legal censorship. "This figure of a trusted sender practically turns into an online-prosecutor, who at his own discretion will be able to point out: "You are wrong, you do not follow the main line of the party, you do not follow the main line of society. You must be punished. Separately, an approved investigator is also created", he warned.