{"id":780606,"date":"2023-06-05T22:24:13","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T19:24:13","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2023-06-05T22:57:14","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T19:57:14","slug":"antymonopolnyj-komitet-ukrayiny-vidzvituvav-za-2022-rik-ta-vyznachyv-priorytety-na-2023-rik","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.eba.com.ua\/en\/antymonopolnyj-komitet-ukrayiny-vidzvituvav-za-2022-rik-ta-vyznachyv-priorytety-na-2023-rik\/","title":{"rendered":"Priorities of Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine for year 2023 and looking back at 2022 performance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In brief<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>At the end of\u00a0March, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (the &#8220;AMC&#8221;) published its Annual Report for 2022 (the &#8220;Report&#8221;).<\/p>\n<p>The full-scale russian invasion caused significant damage to Ukraine&#8217;s economy. Thus, in 2022, the AMC focused on markets that are strategically important for the country, including the markets for: (i) electricity, (ii) natural gas, (iii)\u00a0light oil products, (iv)\u00a0housing and communal services, (v) construction materials (i.e., cement), (vi)\u00a0medicines, (vii)\u00a0real estate, (viii)\u00a0information technologies, (ix) retail, and (x) other industry sectors.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Key takeaways<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As usual, the Report contains examples of the previous year&#8217;s most prominent cases and emphasizes the upcoming year&#8217;s priorities. For this alert, we picked some trends and highlights from the Report in the following categories:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>merger clearances;<\/li>\n<li>concerted actions approvals;<\/li>\n<li>competition law infringements;<\/li>\n<li>fines and recommendations;<\/li>\n<li>priorities for 2023.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><strong>In more detail<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p><strong>I. Merger clearances\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 2022, the AMC received 530 applications for concentration approval, which is 349 applications fewer than last year. The main highlights are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Approval rate<\/strong>: In 379 cases (<strong>71.5%<\/strong>), the AMC granted approval.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Phase I rate: 93.7%<\/strong>\u00a0of applications were considered in Phrase\u00a0I.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Fast-track review rate: 6.3%\u00a0<\/strong>of the applications were considered under the fast-track review procedure (26.7%\u00a0less compared to 2021\u00a0figures).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Phase II remedies rate: <\/strong>Out of the nine concentrations reviewed by the AMC in 2022, six (<strong>67%<\/strong>) were approved subject to commitments. The review of the other three applications was closed without a decision on the merits.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Most approvals were granted in the markets for: (i) forestry, processing and sale of wood (<strong>39.6%<\/strong>), (ii) land management and real estate services (<strong>14.5%<\/strong>), (iii) agro-industrial complex (<strong>9.5%<\/strong>), (iv)\u00a0industry (<strong>7.7%<\/strong>), and (v) fuel and energy (<strong>6.9%<\/strong>).<\/p>\n<p><strong>II.\u00a0Concerted actions approvals\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 2022, the AMC reviewed 41 applications for concerted actions (compared to 50 applications in 2021) and approved 32 of them (<strong>78%<\/strong>).<\/p>\n<p>Most approvals were granted in the following markets: (i) land management and real estate services (<strong>18.8%<\/strong>), (ii) industry (<strong>18.8%<\/strong>), (iii)\u00a0healthcare, medicines and medical devices (<strong>15.6%<\/strong>), (iv) agro-industrial complex (<strong>12.5%<\/strong>), and (v)\u00a0fuel and energy (<strong>6.3%<\/strong>).<\/p>\n<p><strong>III. Competition law infringements\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In 2022, the AMC issued decisions and recommendations with regard to <strong>611 <\/strong>competition law infringement cases. Anticompetitive concerted actions constituted <strong>46.6%<\/strong>\u00a0of all infringements that took place in 2022, with procurement result distortions accounting for <strong>96.7%<\/strong>\u00a0of all concerted actions.<\/p>\n<p>The biggest amount of terminated competition law infringements related to the following markets: (i)\u00a0housing and communal services (<strong>19%<\/strong>), (ii)\u00a0construction and construction materials (<strong>16.7%<\/strong>), (iii)\u00a0agro-industrial complex (<strong>11.5%<\/strong>), and (iv)\u00a0fuel and energy (<strong>10%<\/strong>).<\/p>\n<p>The vast majority of the AMC&#8217;s decisions on unfair competition consisted of consumer misrepresentation to gain an advantage over a competitor. This is mainly because (i) this type of infringement covers pieces of information placed on the products&#8217; labeling or advertising, and (ii) the AMC has the power to initiate proceedings in respect of such infringement on its own initiative.<\/p>\n<p><strong>IV. Fines and recommendations\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In the previous year, the AMC adopted a significantly fewer number of decisions regarding competition law infringements (517 decisions in 2022\u00a0compared to 1,344 decisions in 2021). Therefore, the total amount of fines imposed was only UAH 557.9 <a href=\"#footnote-1\">[1]<\/a> million (compared to UAH 7.237 <a href=\"#footnote-2\">[2]<\/a>\u00a0million in 2021).<\/p>\n<p>The fines imposed in 2022\u00a0consisted of fines for anticompetitive concerted actions (<strong>66.7%<\/strong>), unfair competition\u00a0(<strong>15.3%<\/strong>), information infringements (<strong>13.6%<\/strong>), abuse of dominant position (<strong>2.4%<\/strong>), and concentration and concerted actions without obtaining the AMC&#8217;s prior approval (<strong>2%<\/strong>).<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, the AMC only issued 10 recommendations aimed at strengthening competition (97.9%\u00a0less than in 2021).<\/p>\n<p>It should be noted that the deterioration of the security situation, caused by the full-scale russian invasion in Ukraine, had a negative impact on the AMC&#8217;s work, cooperation with other authorities and ability to interact with the affected persons. In addition, the proactivity of businesses decreased significantly, which affected the number of applications and recommendations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>V.\u00a0Priorities for 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n<div>In its Report, the AMC determined the following priorities for 2023:<\/div>\n<ol>\n<li>advocating and\/or detecting and terminating violations of competition legislation in the market for<strong> banking and financial services<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li>advocating and\/or detecting and terminating violations of competition legislation in the <strong>energy <\/strong>market (electricity and natural gas);<\/li>\n<li>advocating and\/or detecting and terminating violations of competition legislation in the market for <strong>light petroleum products<\/strong>(fuel);<\/li>\n<li>detecting and terminating violations of competition legislation of <strong>state property privatization<\/strong> through competitive procedures;<\/li>\n<li>conducting research on the competition status in the market for <strong>construction materials<\/strong>;<\/li>\n<li>providing regulatory and legal support and advocacy of the system for monitoring and controlling <strong>state aid<\/strong> granted to legal entities;<\/li>\n<li>strengthening <strong>cooperation with competitive authorities<\/strong> of the EU member states.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div>\n<hr align=\"left\" size=\"1\" width=\"33%\" \/>\n<p id=\"footnote-1\"><em>[1] Equivalent to USD 15 million\u00a0or EUR 14 million\u00a0according to the exchange rate of the National Bank of Ukraine (the &#8220;<strong>NBU<\/strong>&#8220;), effective as of 31 December 2022.<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<p id=\"footnote-2\"><em>[2] Equivalent to USD 265 million\u00a0or EUR 234 million\u00a0according to the exchange rate of the NBU, effective as of 31 December 2021.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Contacts<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:Oksana.Simonova@bakermckenzie.com\">Oksana Simonova<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Partner Baker McKenzie<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"mailto:Olga.Mikheieva@bakermckenzie.com\">Olga Mikheieva<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Counsel Baker McKenzie<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In brief At the end of\u00a0March, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (the &#8220;AMC&#8221;) published its Annual Report for 2022 (the &#8220;Report&#8221;). The full-scale russian invasion caused significant damage to Ukraine&#8217;s economy. Thus, in 2022, the AMC focused on markets that are strategically important for the country, including the markets for: (i) electricity, (ii) natural gas, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4489,"featured_media":483286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15576,15575],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-780606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-articles-en","category-news-and-articles-from-companies-en","company-16313"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.eba.com.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.eba.com.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.eba.com.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.eba.com.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4489"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.eba.com.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=780606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.eba.com.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/780606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.eba.com.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.eba.com.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=780606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.eba.com.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=780606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.eba.com.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=780606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}