Visit our dedicated page on merger and antitrust review during wartime updated on a rolling basis.
Due to the russia's war against Ukraine, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMC) suspended most of its functions in March 2022 (see our alert here). In April 2022, the AMC published a Guidance clarifying the merger control and antitrust review procedures during wartime (Wartime Guidance; see our alert here).
Now, when russian forces were thrown back from Kyiv and the surrounding regions, the AMC relocated back to Kyiv and is resuming its functions, including merger and antitrust review. The relevant decision was made on 9 June 2022. Below we outline its most important points (as reported in AMC's release, the text of the decision is not available yet):
- Wartime Guidance continues to apply till 17 June 2022 (inclusive). Until then notifications may be filed with the reduced disclosure, their review (and issuing of clearances) will start after the end of the martial law (unless parties ask the AMC to proceed earlier), and symbolic fines may be expected for closing non-problematic transactions prior to clearance (up to ~EUR 1,500).
- Standard rules will apply starting from 20 June 2022. Notifications filed on or after that date should comply with all formal requirements, their review will commence immediately after filing and the standard review timeline will apply (in non-problematic cases: up to 45 days for mergers and up to 3.5 months for arrangements (concerted practices)), and closing prior to clearance will attract standard sanctions.
- Review of cases that were put on hold because of the war (i.e., where clearance was not issued on or before 25 February 2022) renews automatically from 9 June 2022. It appears that the AMC does not intend to endorse the "tacit" clearance rule (where the clearance is deemed to be granted with the lapse of the review period) in such cases.
If you have questions, please contact Igor Svechkar, Alexey Pustovit or Pavlo Verbolyuk.
To avoid recurring alerts, we have set up a dedicated section at our website where we will be placing all important updates on the merger/antitrust review during the wartime as well as Q&A based on our latest experience and communication with the authority. Follow this link to visit.
