Since the 1st of August 2025, the amendment of the Act for the international arbitration has entered into force and changed the name of the act to the Act for Arbitration. 

The amendments to the act introduce new requirements to the institutions, which are allowed to conduct arbitration on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria. A major change that enters into force as of the 3rd of December 2025 for the permanent arbitration institutions is the introduction of the requirement to be listed in the Register of arbitrations. The Register of arbitrations is in a digital form and represents a structured database which contains information about the permanent arbitration institutions with headquarters in Bulgaria that conduct arbitration and the arbitral cases with a place of arbitration in Bulgaria. In addition to that, the Register contains information about arbitration cases filed before an ad hoc arbitration or a permanent arbitration institution with headquarters outside of Bulgaria.

It is important to highlight that as of the 3rd of March 2026, an arbitral award can be considered null and void if it is pronounced by an arbitration institution not registered in the prescribed manner by the Act.

The information that is filed in and is accessible from the Register is in compliance with the requirements of the Personal Data Act and the Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) which means that the publication of information on the Register will happen only if it is required by the law. The publicly accessible part of the Register will provide information about the arbitration institutions and the names and professions of their arbitrators. The rest of the information will be available only to the Minister of Justice and the people who are appointed to be in charge of keeping the Register, as well as the Inspector to the Minister of Justice.

The act’s amendment provides transparency, awareness and accessibility to the citizens on information about the arbitration institutions without infringing the rights of the persons involved in the arbitration cases.