UKRAINE

RULG - Ukrainian Legal Group

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Olimpiysky Center

Suite 14, 11th floor

72 Velyka Vasylkivska Street

Kiev, 03150

Tel: +380 (44) 207-1060 / 61 / 62 / 63

Tel: +380 (44) 207-1064

4056 Mansion Drive, N.W.

Washington, D.C. 20007

Tel: +1 (202) 338-1182

Fax: +1 (202) 338-4237

www.rulg.com

 

5. Basic trends in the development of antitrust laws in 2012-2013

Trends

As for the key trends in the development of competition regulation in Ukraine in 2012-2013 we note the following:

  • competition law in Ukraine is becoming more transparent; the AMCU is actively cooperating with competition authorities around the world in an effort to harmonize both the procedural and substantive aspects of the Ukrainian law with the EU regulations and practices;
  • the AMCU will continue its efforts to modernize Ukrainian competition law, both through a series of amendments and reforms of current legislation, and through the introduction of newly drafted legal instruments. Over the past years several important amendments were introduced that included a detailed  definition of certain characteristics of unfair competition, broader definition of misleading information, established a new procedure for conducting unscheduled on-site inspections, stipulating new alternative means for serving information requests, and tightening criteria for exemption from the standard requirement to provide notification of concerted actions, improved regulations for obtaining information and collecting evidence of competition law violations, etc.;
  • at present, the AMCU is actively elaborating its standard requirements for concerted actions aimed at supply and use of goods for exemption from the requirement to notify such concerted actions  and the Leniency Procedure aimed at (1) defining the terms applicant, cartel, a person who coordinated anticompetitive concerted actions, as well as the leniency conditions; (2) determining the AMCU’s procedure to apply for exemption from liability and the requirements to applications, in particular the requirements to the provided cartel evidence, and to the processing of such applications; and (3) determining the AMCU’s leniency application procedure and the respective processing procedure; the drafts laws entrusting the AMCU with collecting samples of goods, raw stocks, materials, intermediate products, and component parts from business entities, engaged in trade and services examination, providing criminal responsibility for restriction of competition by means of concerted actions aimed at distortion of the results of auctions, contests, tenders committed for mercenary motives are pending at the Ukrainian Parliament, etc.;
  • the AMCU will continue to enforce competition law in priority areas; great attention is paid to monopolistic abuses and unfair competition in the energy sector, pharma sector, transport, communications and retail sectors, and the advertising of medicines, baby food, financial services, etc.

RULG-Ukrainian Legal Group

The RULG - Ukrainian Legal Group attorneys have wide-ranging experience advising international companies on major global and regional deals involving antitrust, unfair competition and regulatory issues in Ukraine. To date, we have enjoyed a 100% success rate in obtaining antimonopoly clearances from the AMCU, and often succeed in obtaining clearance ahead of schedule. We were invited by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to conduct training sessions on antitrust and competition compliance issues for Ukrainian judges from all over Ukraine under the UNDP - European Commission Project "Reform of Arbitration Courts and Support to Court Administration".  In the course of this work, we prepared Ukraine-focused presentations for annual "Compliance, Law and Ethics Day" antimonopoly compliance training sessions held by a major multinational client.  Our firm also conducted interactive Q&A sessions, "Dos-and-don'ts" exercises, risk assessments, internal antitrust audits, and gave practical advice on compliance in dealings with business partners (distributors, customers, etc.) and competitors, covering liability issues, relations with regulators and many other issues.