Below you will find guidelines for issuing force majeure certificates from the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Our clients have a clause in several contracts according to which a certificate of force majeure should be presented to the other party. The purpose of the certificate is to serve as proof of the occurrence of a force majeure and the corresponding release of the party submitting it from its contractual obligations for the duration of the force majeure.
Please note that we do not advise you to issue this certificate if there is no specific clause requesting it in your contracts. The COVID-19 situation is public knowledge and as such a certificate is not mandatory to prove its existence.
Force majeure is an unpredictable and insuperable event of an extraordinary nature that has arisen after the conclusion of the contract.
The force majeure certificate is issued on the basis of a written application because of unpredictable and insuperable (force majeure) circumstances, such as the dynamic situation with COVID-19.
In principle, the application should be accompanied by documents issued by an independent organization, proving indisputably the occurrence of force majeure. In the present case, we do not consider it necessary to present evidence since the circumstances are well known.
The force majeure certificate must contain information about:
- the contracting parties;
- the number, date and place of its conclusion;
- the deadline for execution;
- the circumstances that hindered or delayed its implementation. In this case, the Government imposed measures to limit the spread of COVID-19. The certificate must contain the place and time of the occurrence of the circumstances, their period of occurrence, other information enabling the causal link between the circumstance and the total or partial non-execution of the contract to be established. That is, for the certificate to be issued, there must be a causal link between the orders issued in Bulgaria in the last days and the inability to execute the contracts on time. Orders related to restricting the spread of COVID-19 are not in themselves a cause of force majeure, but must relate to the objective inability to execute and must in some way affect your business.
- The certificate must contain only the facts stated, without their legal assessment.
The certificate of force majeure is issued in Bulgarian, English, French, German, Russian or other languages, depending on the client’s request. It is signed by the BCCI chairman or an authorized person and is stamped with the BCCI seal in Bulgarian or English.
Force majeure certificates issued by BCCI are internationally recognized and accepted as evidence by international arbitration institutions.
Fees for issuing a force majeure certificate are:
Bulgarian language:
a) for BCCI members – BGN 360.00
b) for non-members of BCCI – BGN 480.00
Foreign language:
a) for BCCI members – BGN 420.00
b) for non-members of BCCI – BGN 490.00
