Following the entry of EU-Ukraine Association Agreement (“Agreement”), Ukraine adopted basic state aid regulations which became effective from August 02, 2017. Bringing Ukrainian state aid regulations in compliance with the EU legislation is expected to come soon to a more definitive stage. Despite the progress made during the first two years when the state aid…

While Ukraine has been making headlines over the past few months with the presidential elections, there have also been several notable news items regarding Ukrainian merger control. At the end of April, two record fines for merger control violations – in the amounts of EUR 1.9 million and EUR 1.8 million – were imposed by…

Background Significant amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On protection of economic competition” came into force on 17 December 2017. The changes are aimed at prohibiting transactions involving persons included in the Ukrainian sanctions list (the Sanctions list). The Sanctions list was introduced by the Law of Ukraine “On Sanctions” following the annexation of Crimea…

More than a year has passed since the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) completed its first investigations into the Ukrainian pharmaceutical market. However, it has recently struck another blow yet again and, one should say, with renewed vigour. The first companies that fell under antitrust sanctions were Alcon and distributors (Alcon case). The AMCU passed…

In late October 2017 the AMCU approved the Typical Requirements for Vertical Concerted Actions of Business Entities (hereinafter – the Typical Requirements). The development of the document was due to the commitments undertaken by Ukraine in accordance with the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. Prior to the adoption of the Typical Requirements the issues of the AMCU’s…

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (‘the AMCU’) has recently completed complex research into the national tobacco market. The market research was triggered by the investigation against ‘TEDIS’ (‘Company’), which has a monopoly on the market of cigarette distribution in Ukraine. The study started back in 2015 and resulted in the Company being fined for approximately…

On 30 December 2016, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC) published a report on its inquiry into State support measures in the energy sector. With a 2 August 2017 deadline just around the corner, the report provides timely information on possible State aid issues in the Ukrainian coal and related energy sectors. In particular, while…

On 28 October 2016, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC) fined seven companies, including Shell and SOCAR, a total of approx. EUR 7 million for alleged concerted practices. The AMC decision comes after investigation finding that the road fuel companies were tacitly coordinating prices from 2013 to 2016. The allegations base on ‘parallel behaviour’ observed…

On 28 November 2016 the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC) launched public consultations on the draft Horizontal Merger Guidelines. The AMC invites to submit comments to the draft by 7 December 2016. The draft Guidelines, prepared in cooperation with the Competition Council of the Republic of Lithuania, Bundeskartellamt and the US Federal Trade Commission, are modelled after…

  Given the very low notification thresholds in Ukraine, which caught even foreign-to-foreign transactions that in the majority of cases raised no antitrust concerns and did not have local nexus, a number of parties skipped local notification and breached the law. In some cases the agency has pursed companies for failure to notify, and these…