Electricity distribution company CEZ was fined 100 000 by the Commission for Personal Data Protection (CPDP) for continued breach of privacy protection regulations.

CPDP had order CEZ in 2008 to stop its practice of requiring so-called proof-of-right-of-use documentation from new clients. Documents that would prove a client's right to use a certain premise could be a rental contract or an ownership deed.

"This practice creates a duplicate of the archive of notary deeds at the registration agency," CPDP member Krassimir Dimitrov was quoted as saying by Bulgarian daily Sega.

"They do not need this data," Dimitrov said. "All they need to know is who will pay the bill. Who has what rights over which property is none of their business."

The commission was going to investigate other monopolists later this year, according to Sega. "We are convinced that a lot of unnecessary data is collected," Dimitrov said.

CPDP has also ordered Sofiyska Voda to stop collecting such data.

Both companies have been the subject of CPDP investigations before, when they were found to have been sending invoices to customers without envelops.

CEZ would be investigated again to see if the practice had stopped before the fine would become final, Sega said.