Emerging Litigation Trends and Recent Developments in Bulgaria

DGKV team published an article in relation to Emerging Litigation Trends and Recent Developments in Bulgaria.

The article briefly presents cases of state liability for violations of EU law are rapidly increasing in Bulgaria, having already formed extensive case law on that matter. 

With more than 15 dedicated lawyers making up our Dispute Resolution Practice Group, DGKV has an extensive experience and capability of handling legal disputes stemming from infringements of both domestic and EU law by the State. We are at your disposal to provide more information on the below case law as well as credentials and list of our landmark cases in this area upon your request. 

Partner Angel Ganev and Senior Associate Simeon Simeonov are the authors of the article.

You can read the publication here.

Trade statistics show that UK businesses are missing out on duty waivers for their customers, negotiated by the UK Government in over 70 trade deals. Rules of Origin (RoO) can be complex, so join us to understand how to benefit from trade deal preferences, how to be more profitable and how to make your exports even more competitive.

These webinars are co-hosted with the DIT Export Support Service (ESS) who have been working across government departments to make RoO as easy to navigate as possible, despite their inherent complexities.

HMRC RoO experts will offer their expertise in a Q&A session and attendees will have a chance to seek clarity on any pain points they might be encountering.

DIT Export Champions will share their personal experience with RoO during their export journeys. This is an opportunity for you to hear from other businesses on the tangible benefits that come from taking advantage of RoO preferences.

Finally, ESS will be there to signpost attendees to new business resources and explain how they can be fully utilised.

Hosted by Liam Smyth, Director of ChamberCustoms, with additional speakers to be confirmed.

• Tuesday 7 February
• 15:00 (UK time)
• Register here

On January 20, BBBA was a partner at AmCham’s “Rule of Law and the Business Environment” Conference. It was an honour to welcome ambassadors and representatives of leading countries and hear their feedback and advice on rule of law in Bulgaria.

Attn. Angel Buzalov, chair of the BBBA Tax & Legal Committee, took part in the legal panel, where he presented some of the results of BBBA’s legal committee activities, and also commented on the fundaments of the legal framework of the judicial authority set in the Constitution of Republic of Bulgaria.

DJINGOV, GOUGINSKI, KYUTCHUKOV & VELICHKOV elects Gergana Monovska and Valentin Bojilov as new partners as of 1 January 2023. DGKV continues its growth as a legal market leader in Bulgaria.

In April 2023, SeeNext will publish a new regional report focused on the automotive sector in Southeast Europe’s hottest automotive markets – Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia. 

Taking into account both local and global trends, the report will have a special focus on electric vehicles and policies at the national level aimed at boosting their popularity and speeding up deployment. It will also contain an overview of the major M&A deals and investment projects, and financial analysis tracking the industry’s performance in the three markets, including a ranking of the most dynamic companies in the sector.

Get featured in the 2023 edition of our Automotive Industry in Southeast Europe report to:

• showcase your products, services and solutions to the business community in Southeast Europe;
• share your view and forecast for the future of the industry and the trends that are shaping it up;
• reach a well-defined audience of executives, industry professionals and decision-makers via SeeNext and SeeNews;
• be on the radar of international investors in the region;

Partner with SeeNext.

PwC’s Academy is excited to announce that the Coaching Skills for Managers training course starts on 6 February 2023.

This course is designed for leaders, line and team managers, HR professionals, and anyone interested in developing their coaching skills and enhancing their overall effectiveness as a leader. Coaching is a leadership style that differs from the traditional “command and control” approach and is becoming increasingly important for managers to positively impact their teams and organisations as a whole. This training will help you discover a coaching mindset, focusing on presence, deep listening, and asking meaningful questions. 

Don’t miss this opportunity to develop the skills and knowledge needed to become an effective leader. 

Read more here.

As businesses counteract inflation pressure and a slow-down in the economy they may reduce overall marketing spend, this will require an adjustment to their marketing activities in 2023. During this time it will be vital to be more agile and to adapt to changing consumer habits and technology.

When it comes to selecting their marketing channels, companies will see the value of experimentation and testing based on data looking to get repeatable results.

This is the time for businesses to adapt their SEO strategy with alternative means of promotion. This article looks at ways that SEO can be enhanced in 2023 to take advantage of new technology and changes in user perception.

Add More BoFu Content

Bottom of funnel (BoFu) content is the final stage of the buyer’s journey where prospects are looking for content to make a purchase decision. BoFU content will encourage a sale but continues to add value wherever possible.

Adding BoFu content will benefit activities such as SEO and Local Search.

Adhere to Google’s Core Web Vitals and E-A-T

Google’s Core Web Vitals and E-A-T guidelines will continue to be important ranking factors.

Improving your website with the guidelines from Google include:

• Improving page speed

• Providing good (and long-form) content that answers questions clearly with expert information, building authority for your website,

• Using secure protocols like HTTPS.

Take advantage of Zero-click Searches

There are expected to be a big surge in predictive search, featured snippets, and conversational queries delivered through voice or other means to provide answers to consumer questions.

Google is implementing a Multitask Unified Model (MUM), to help users take fewer steps to find information.  With its new algorithm, Google is aiming to reduce the number of queries from six to two.

This change should affect your SEO strategy with pages and posts answering your audience’s questions, not just the one on the query and should be based on intent.

Thanks to advancements in Google’s knowledge panel and rich schemas, a lot of search results are now displayed in the form of an answer box, Q&A toggle, or direct answer.

This is good news for users (you can get information faster) but bad news for website owners (fewer clicks to your website).

You should still try to Implement proper schema markup to get featured in Google’s knowledge panel. Despite the no-click nature of such informational queries, getting your name out there is still not a bad idea.

Create Original Content

Google continues to emphasise the importance of good content throughout your website as the key to ranking well as seen in the “Helpful Content Update”.

Original content that is authoritative, written by subject matter experts that cites sources is increasingly going to rank higher than low-quality, anonymous writing.

This doesn’t mean writing and publishing content just for the sake of having content. That means using statistics and original research that helps people understand the solution to a problem

Use Programmatic AI Content

While only 15% of content marketers used AI writing tools in 2022 there will be a sharp increase going forward as AI content generators like Jasper will save you time and money.

The next level will see AI focus on content conversions, CRO, with tools like Persado or personalised content with tools like Personyze and Phrasee.

This includes all organic SEO efforts including content, backlinks, and on-page optimisation.

Manage Trust with Your Audience

The key element to remember, beyond awareness and local accessibility, is the ability to build and maintain trust with the audience.

Businesses that pay close attention to managing, soliciting and responding to reviews will continue to get chosen above the competition when and where consumers look for what they need.

Start using Voice Search

Google is constantly working to enhance the user’s search experience so they can locate relevant content quickly and is introducing LaMDA to better comprehend people’s conversational-style search queries to better serve their requirements.

Increase Video Marketing

The rise of TikTok and YouTube shorts shows us that people searching for information often prefer to watch a short clip as opposed to reading an article.

Thus, Google has been trying to incorporate this trend into search results. YouTube videos were already shown in SERPs before, but now video content gets two new sets of structured data for Youtube videos:

• Seek markup – Google scans your video and identifies key moments automatically

• Clip markup – you embed timestamps that you want to appear as key moments or highlights of your video.

This new structured data makes it easier for users to identify a point in the video that they should be watching instead of skipping through the whole video.

First and foremost, focus on video content in your marketing strategy. Then, make use of this new markup data and apply common-sense SEO principles to rank.

Kempinski Hotel Grand Arena Bansko starts the year with a new award. The hotel is ranked first in the category TOP 10 Five-Star Mountain Hotels in Bulgaria of the TOP 100 Best Hotels in Bulgaria 2022 index. The TOP 100 Best Hotels in Bulgaria ranking is aimed at distinguishing the hotels which have achieved and sustained the highest level of guest satisfaction over the past year. The distinction is awarded after an analysis of the hotel’s performance on over 200 international platforms and online travel agencies, such as Booking.com, Google, HolidayCheck and TripAdvisor, among others. To calculate the ranking, we have considered guest ratings of over 1,500 Bulgarian hotels with more than 20 rooms and classifications of three or more stars on 200+ international platforms and online travel agencies. These ratings were provided by TrustYou, an international online reputation management leader and the exclusive data partner of the ranking. Elements of the ranking algorithm include the hotel classification, hotel type – city, spa, seaside, mountain and leisure – number of comments and more. The TOP 100 Best Hotels in Bulgaria is an initiative of the organizers of the Hotel & Tourism Investment Forum.

The first awards ceremony of the TOP 100 Best Hotels in Bulgaria ranking took place on 19 January at the Central Military Club Sofia. Violeta Milusheva, Director of Sales and Marketing, attended the event and had the honour of personally accepting the certificate of honour on behalf of the hotel. “I am very happy to be part of this prestigious ceremony”, commented Ms. Milusheva. “This is an extremely valuable award for us as it is based on the evaluation of our guests from all around the globe, and we sincerely thank them. It reflects their trust in us and rewards our continuous dedication to providing a remarkable experience to our guests according to Kempinski’s five-star international luxury service standards.”

Right after the ceremony, the first Hoteliers Ball in Bulgaria was held in the same location, where managers and owners of the best hotels in the country were present.

Learn more about the special accommodation offers here.

On 24 January we had the pleasure to host our first Executive Lunch for 2023 with a topic discussion on Vision for Change – Leading Through Turbulent 2023. Special thanks to our presenters Maya Milanova and Irina Marina from Flow Logic.

Guests had the chance to learn expert know-how and tactics on how to manage change, how to define change vision and they did a self-assessment on ‘’How ready are you for the next change’’. As per usual attendees had the chance to network with fellow members and partners.

Do you know what 2023 has in store for you? Certainly there are many unknowns. One thing we do know is that 2023 is likely to be yet another year packed with change initiatives. 

Frequent and complex change naturally lead to change fatigue and uncertainty. There is a direct impact on employees’ performance and approach to work, and ultimately – your business and the bottom line. Lack of willingness, capability or capacity to support employees in times of change are common reasons for transformations to fail. Another pitfall is not having a defined change vision or failing to communicate it clearly.

You play a paramount role in leading change. People turn to you for clarity, guidance and cues on where they need to direct their efforts. However, for you to be an effective leader, you first need to overcome your very own barriers. Building resilience will strengthen your ability to adapt to change. The five change muscles are entirely in your hands to develop, giving you the energy and perseverance you need in the midst of change.

The change journey starts with defining the change vision, the desired future state, the north star. Once the vision is defined, communicate, communicate and continue to communicate. Develop compelling messages that are relevant and meaningful for everyone involved. 

You are not alone in leading change. Your management teams are your eyes and ears on the ground. Help them step into the change leadership role. When leaders fulfill the change management role, change is made effectively and sustainably.

Special gratitude from the Flow Logic team for the demonstrated interest and the active discussions around the tables during the whole lunch.

Big thanks to our host Sofia Hotel Balkan for the warmwelcome!

You may find photos of the event here.

The fifth consecutive study of Manpower – SATR H1 2023, which provides a summary analysis of trends and expectations for compensation levels, is now available. For the purpose of the study, we carried out a survey with 209 companies across various sectors in the country to understand their attitudes towards changes in remunerations and benefits and how external factors are influencing these processes. The highest response rates we received from companies in the Manufacturing, Information Technology and Retail & FMCG sectors. 

With the help of our survey, we identified one of the main objectives of companies, namely, to retain their current staff, as well as to create nurturing conditions for attracting the right talents. Thus, companies that did not make any changes in their remuneration in 2022 are planning to make up for the difference with promotions in the first half of 2023 for their employees. 

You can find out more about the changes that have taken place in the full report here.

Due to the great interest in the results of the survey, we also dedicated the first episode of HR Navigator 2023 to them, which you can watch here (only in Bulgarian)