Bulgaria's Competition Watchdog Fines Online Store Owner

The Commission for Protection of Competition of Bulgaria has slapped online retailer eMAG with a hefty fine over misleading advertisement.

This is yet another case of sanctions imposed on eMAG in relation to the advertising campaigns such as "Black Friday", "Crazy Days" and several more that were in place over the past year and at the end of 2014.

The fine relates to Romania-based Dante International, which owns the store.

The commission's ruling followed a claim filed by a competitor who argued eMAG pushed to convince customers that substantial discount would be offered on particular days, which in some cases did not happen, while in others prices were inflated beforehand.

eMAG misleadingly claimed it would offer discounts of up to 70% for some products, while it did so only for 14 of its vast rage of items, while most carried a discount tag of between 30 and 40%.

Another source of discontent for the competitor is the retailer's slogan, which roughly translates as "the easiest way to order, the safest way of delivery, a million ways to rejoice". The commission has ruled that the first part wrongly states no other store has better order arrangements, but also that the retailer does not offer a million products.

The decision can be appealed.

A similar decision was taken last year by the watchdog (but with sanctions being worth much less) over a misleading campaign involving the possibility to win a "trip to the Canary Islands".