In connection with Russia’s war against Ukraine and introduction of the martial law in the country, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC) relocated from Kyiv to Lviv and decided to pause most of its current operations. The relevant resolution was published by the AMC on 7 March 2022. More specifically, in cases where the final decision was not made on or before 25 February 2022, the AMC decided to suspend for the period of martial law the review of:
- merger control and antitrust notifications and cases;
- notifications of violation of the antitrust law;
- notifications on unfair competition;
- notifications on preliminary conclusions regarding concentrations and concerted practices;
- notifications on verification/reconsideration of AMC decisions;
- state aid notifications and cases, letters of clarification on the application of state aid legislation;
- complaints on violation of public procurement legislation.
Also, until the end of the martial law it was decided to suspend (a) publication in the electronic system of decisions on complaints on violation of public procurement legislation, and (b) the deadlines for providing information in response to AMC requests, where the deadline for providing such information fell on 25 February 2022 or later.
It is unclear for now how this authority's new resolution will be compatible with the Competition Law, which, for example, provides for tacit clearance of notified transactions with lapse of the review period. It is also uncertain whether the resolution suspends the review of notifications which may be filed to the AMC after 7 March 2022. We are now trying to clarify these and other issues with the AMC and will issue futher note once there is any meaningful update.
For further information please contact Igor Svechkar, Alexey Pustovit, or Pavlo Verbolyuk.
