Bulgaria: Competition watchdog dismisses appeals against Sofia Airport concession

Bulgaria’s Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) has ruled against the appeals lodged by the four losing bidders in the Sofia Airport concession tender, dismissing them as groundless.

In a lengthy ruling posted on its website late on November 15, the CPC for the first time made public the substance of the appeals. Previously, it had only acknowledged their existence, but gave no details.

The formal appeals covered extensive grounds – their description took 118 pages of the 264-page CPC ruling – and included complaints against their rival bids, as well as the process followed by the Transport Ministry.

By dismissing the appeals from the losing bidders – consortia fronted by Manchester Airports Group and Aéroports de Paris, Germany’s Fraport and the tie-up between Swiss-based SSB Sauerwein & Schaefer and Copenhagen Airports – the regulator effectively confirmed the Ministry’s pick of the consortium between French infrastructure investor Meridiam and Munich Airport as the future concessionaire.

Full Content: Sofia Globe

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