Bulgarian Competition Watchdog Fines Greece's Cosmote Local Unit

The fine was imposed in connection with a prize winning game called "100 for a 100" organised by Globul. The campaign markets Globul's text-messaging service as people that have sent at least two text messages with a combined cost of 2.4 levs become eligible to win one of the 100 Mercedes Benz cars on offer.

The analysis of the commission shows that the value of each of the prizes exceeds substantially the limit set by law which is 10 minimum salaries, or 100 times the value of the offered text messaging service, the Commission for Protection of Competition (CPC) said in a statement.

CPC has also taken into consideration the psychological impact of the promotional campaign which could distort demand on the relative market as it is not based on the actual quality of the service, but on a perceived prize-winning opportunity, it said.

Officials from Cosmo Bulgaria Mobile were not immediately available for comment.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)