Challenge

Alber & Geiger was retained by a US corporation specialising in power generation. Our client had purchased an important coal power plant in Bulgaria through a long-term power purchasing agreement. After Bulgaria’s accession to the EU, the client faced complaints over EU State aid. They turned to Alber & Geiger to assist in finding a solution with the Bulgarian authorities that would have the backing of the EU institutions.

Strategy

By demonstrating the bigger picture of Bulgaria reaching out to Russian nuclear energy investments on the back of chasing out Western investors, we were able to create a strategy that targeted the European Commission and the European Parliament, dealing with energy security, environmental standards and compliance as well as the rule of law and investment protection, and shift away from a EU State aid consideration only.

Results

As a result, the European Commission opened the door to finding a solution for the client that would solve the past through a future oriented energy agreement.

Challenge

The EU imposed onerous penalties on our client, the Republic of Bulgaria. €825 million of pre-accession funds were frozen. It was a response to its alleged failure to combat corruption, organized crime and misuse of EU funds. Funds worth up to €7 billion over the next six years were also at risk. The Bulgarian government turned to Alber & Geiger for help.

Strategy

Alber & Geiger’s multi-faceted approach involved sophisticated legal analysis calibrated through a dynamic, institution sensitive communications strategy. It incorporated practical considerations like staff changes in the Bulgarian government as well as larger semantic and structural reasons for misunderstandings.

Results

Alber & Geiger was able to restore trust and confidence between the European Commission and the Bulgarian government. The result was the unfreezing of the €500 million in EU funds and the de-jeopardizing of the rest of the €7 billion.

Challenge

Dynamic currency conversion (DCC) is a currency exchange service that enables customers to pay in their home currency or in local currency according to their choice. It is offered at ATMs and credit card transactions in shops. The service providers had raised concerns over the card scheme behavior of credit card companies aimed at limiting competition in currency conversion services across several jurisdictions, including in the European Union.

They contacted Alber & Geiger to provide political support with the European Commission’s Directorate General for Competition on their repeated complaints over card schemes’ excessive rules, fees and compliance regimes. Moreover, the companies relied on Alber & Geiger to help them identify political avenues to raise their concerns in the European Union, via regulatory and legislative paths, in parallel to their competition channel.

Strategy

From the outset, we created a strategy that focused on three works streams: political support into the complaint with DG Comp, advocacy with lawmakers and officials to raise awareness of DCC and highlight concerns against credit card schemes, and finally, to build support with merchant, consumer and other sectorial associations that are affected by currency exchange services. 

Results

Our team was able to raise awareness of the situation on currency exchange services, informing officials and politicians on the differences between the model offered by the credit cards, and that offered by the DCC providers, putting the emphasis on the DCC currency exchange service that brings more transparency and consumer choice. Simultaneously, through regular exchanges with lawmakers we have laid the foundation for support for our amendments on the ongoing EU legislation on the cross border payment regulation and the payment service directive. Finally, we managed to shift alliances in support of the issues highlighted by DCC providers.