Since the beginning of the year, violators have paid UAH 185 million in fines, while the AMCU imposed UAH 165 million. The Chair of the AMCU in an interview with "Telegraph"

Between January and June 2023, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine imposed fines on violators of antitrust laws totaling UAH 165 million, while the defendants paid UAH 185 million to the budget during the same period. This was stated by Olha Pishchanska, the Chair of the AMCU, in the second part of her interview with "Telegraph".

"The amount that the defendant will pay as a fine depends on the complexity of the violation and whether he cooperated with the AMCU during the investigation. The fine itself is deducted from the amount of its income for the year preceding the year of the AMCU's decision. Some of the fines imposed by the AMCU in 2023 are smaller than in the years before the large-scale invasion, as many companies experienced a decrease in revenue in 2022," the Chair of the AMCU noted.

Among the most common abuses, Olha Pishchanska emphasized collusions in public procurement. According to her, over the past six months, the AMCU has already issued 100 decisions, in which 413 violations have been identified. Most often, the Chair of the AMCU noted, abuses are recorded in the construction and housing and utilities sectors.

Regarding the overall business activity in Ukraine, Olha Pishchanska noted that this year's situation is better than last year, but "it is too early to talk about market recovery... businesses need to be helped to recover." In particular, the Chair of the AMCU cited the example of 237 applications for concentration received by the AMCU in the first half of 2023. This is almost twice as many as in the first half of 2022, but half as many as in 2021 (485 applications were received in the same period).

Also, discussing with journalists the competition law reform planned for the near future, the Chair of the AMCU commented on the stages planned after the adoption of Draft Law No. 5431:

"In line with its international commitments, Ukraine must also strengthen the institutional capacity and ensure the independence of the AMCU, review the procedure for appointing and dismissing the Chair of the AMCU and State Commissioners. I think it will be difficult to fulfill this part of the commitments because it is political. I mean, it is not difficult to write it out technically, but it will be difficult to coordinate. We expect battles over this issue," said Olha Pishchanska.

Answering the question at the end of the interview about ways to resolve problems with timely payment to retailers, the Chair of the AMCU noted that Ukrainian legislation should be as close as possible to the Directive 2019/633 of the European Parliament of April 17, 2019 on unfair trade practices between undertakings in the agriculture and food sector.

"We are aware that the Verkhovna Rada is considering several draft laws to establish rules and procedures in this market. In our opinion, adopting the relevant law is the only right way to resolve this conflict... There is no need to reinvent something that has been working well in the world for a long time," the Chair of the AMCU said.

The first part of Olha Pishchanska's interview with the "Telegraph" can be found here.

On July 25, 2023, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Economic Development considered the report of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine for 2022 and heard the report of the Accounting Chamber on the results of the analysis of the AMCU report in the part that affects the implementation of the state budget of Ukraine. According to the data confirmed by the Accounting Chamber, the economic impact of the AMCU's work in 2022 amounted to UAH 5.27 billion.