The Commission for Protection against Discrimination rules once again in our clients’ favour!
DGKV achieved new successes in defending our clients’ interests by professionally finalising a number of cases before the discrimination watchdog. Discrimination complaints are quite exotic for Bulgaria and working on such is a fair attestation for the size and diversity of the law firm’s dispute resolution team.  
Since 2011, DGKV has been acting as legal counsel and representative of CEZ Razpredelenie Bulgaria AD (“CEZ Razpredelenie/CEZ”), one of the three public electricity suppliers in the country, in a series of strategic cases of alleged ethnic discrimination in relation to the installation of commercial metering devices at an inaccessible height.  Two of those cases gave rise to references for preliminary rulings by the Court of Justice of the European Union (Case C-394/11 Belov and Case C-83/14 CHEZ Razpredelenie Bulgaria) to clarify the meaning of the Race Directive (Directive 2000/43/EC). DGKV represented CEZ before the EU Court of Justice on both occasions. Case C-83/14 was decided by the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice, a confirmation of the matter’s legal complexity.
The Commission for Protection against Discrimination has now decided two cases in CEZ Razpredelenie’s favour. The commission determined that the installation of metering devices at an inaccessible height in certain neighbourhoods is not an act which leads to direct or indirect discrimination, but an objectively justified and lawful practice under CEZ’s obligations to society and clients in accordance with Art. 69 of the Energy Act, namely: guaranteeing citizens’ lives and health, ownership, quality of electricity, the continuity of electricity supply and the security and reliability of the country’s energy system. Three more similar cases are still pending before the antidiscrimination commission.
DGKV’s team working on these cases included Partner Angel Ganev and Senior Associates Elena Ivanova and Valentin Bojilov.