The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has fined the private companies Fialka and Style-Decor UAH 92 million for collusion in the tender for the reconstruction of the Avangard stadium in Rivne, the agency’s press service has said.
According to the statement, the committee found evidence of coordination between the two companies during the participation in the tender due to which the competition between them was eliminated. The expected cost of works at the tender was UAH 202.2 mln, the AMCU notes.
For the concerted actions at the auction the companies, in addition to the fine, are banned from participating in public procurement for three years.
According to Opendatabot, the owner and beneficiary of the private industrial and commercial firm “Fialka” (Sumy) is Vahid Kurbanov. According to the company’s financial statements for 2020, it was not engaged in economic activities.
The owner and beneficiary of LLC “Style-Decor” is named Vera Rozhchuk. In 2020 the company received 151 thousand UAH of net loss and 23 million UAH of income.
The Administrative Board of the Northern Interregional Territorial Branch of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) has begun considering a case against Terrafood LLC (Terra-Food TM) for the production and distribution of a cheese product, the packaging design of which could mislead consumers .
As reported on the agency’s website on Thursday, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine opened a case on a complaint from a consumer who purchased the Mozzaretta cheese product produced by Terrafood LLC, confusing it with traditional mozzarella cheese due to a similar inscription on the package and its design in the colors of the Italian flag.
“During the consideration of the application, it was found that the dominant inscription in the Latin Mozzaretta placed on the front side of the package, in particular, that the font of this inscription (the letters “TT” are visually similar to “LL”) may give the consumer an erroneous impression regarding the method of manufacture and composition of the product (…) and influence his intention to purchase the product of this enterprise,” the Committee said in a statement.
The AMCU recalled that real mozzarella cheese, in accordance with international standards, may contain starters from lactic and/or aromatic bacteria, cultures of harmless microorganisms, rennet or other safe milk-precipitating enzymes, salt substitute, vinegar, flour and crumbs, in some cases safe dyes , acidity regulators, stabilizers and preservatives.
At the same time, in the composition of the Mozzaretta product under the TM “Terra-Food”, in particular, fats of non-dairy origin were found, which contradicts Article 1 of the Law “On Milk and Dairy Products”.
Given the above, the actions of the manufacturer in terms of product packaging contain signs of a violation of the law “On Protection against Unfair Competition”, the Committee reported and added that consideration of the relevant case had begun.
GC “Terra Food” develops business in three sectors – dairy, meat and agriculture. It is one of the five largest producers of dairy products in the country.
The production capacity of 10 milk processing enterprises of the holding before the Russian invasion was 31,000 tons of cheese, 78,000 tons of butter and vegetable butter, and 61,000 tons of whole milk products per year.
More than 100 types of meat products of the group are produced at the Tulchinsk Meat Processing Plant – more than 6 thousand tons of products per year.
On September 2, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine began consideration of the case on the grounds that PJSC “Scientific and Production Center” Borshchahiv Chemical and Pharmaceutical Plant “(BHFZ) committed a violation under Article 16 of the Law “On Protection from Unfair Competition” in the form of unlawful collection of commercial secrets of PrJSC “Pharmaceutical firm “Darnitsa” (both from Kyiv).
“In a statement to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine, the complainant said that during the consideration of the case in one of the domestic courts, his competitor noted in the text of the recall information about PJSC FF Darnitsa, which is a commercial secret. We are talking about information about active pharmaceutical ingredients imported by the company,” the antimonopoly agency said in a press release on Thursday.
According to the report, Darnitsa also alleges that it did not give the competitor permission to obtain, disclose or otherwise use information containing trade secrets. According to the applicant, the information was obtained in an unlawful way, since it cannot be known to third parties on legal grounds, since appropriate measures are taken to protect this data.
The Committee indicates that it has found that the applicant and the respondent are direct competitors.
The Office notes that this is the second complaint of this kind in its history. In 2018, by decision No. 30-r/tk, the Provisional Administrative Board fined Ergon-Electric LLC UAH 360,000 for misuse of the trade secret of its competitor, TIK Vector-VS LLC, received from its former employees.
The defendant unsuccessfully appealed against the decision of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine to the Economic Court in Kyiv, the Northern Economic Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. By a ruling dated November 23, 2020, the Supreme Court upheld the position of the committee and upheld the decision of the courts of first instance and appeal.
BHFZ and Darnitsa are among the largest Ukrainian pharmaceutical companies. Darnitsa owns 31.8037% of BHFZ shares.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has opened a case on the fact that ProZorro.Sale state enterprise had established additional terms of the contract and payment for access by operators of authorized electronic platforms to the electronic trading system ProZorro.Sale.
“The case was initiated on the statements of one of the operators, who complained about the unreasonable increase in fees for the development of the electronic trading system and the provision of access to ProZorro.Sale only after additional conditions are met,” the statement on the official website of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine reads.
It is indicated that the state-owned enterprise requires a certain fee for the development of the electronic trading system, however, the AMCU has reason to believe that its size is not economically justified.
The committee also found out that ProZorro.Sale state enterprise provides operators with access to the ProZorro.Sale trading system only if they fulfill additional marketing obligations that do not directly relate to the subject of the access agreement and aim to promote the trading system.
The AMCU noted that back in 2021, the committee began to study the situation on the market for providing services for access of operators of authorized electronic platforms to the electronic trading system, which is used to conduct auctions in normatively defined areas.
As a result of the adoption of control measures, recommendations were provided to ProZorro.Sale aimed at eliminating the above problems. However, the state-owned enterprise has not taken comprehensive steps to prevent possible negative consequences for the competitive environment.
Now, in case of evidence of the negative impact of the actions of ProZorro.Sale on competition in the market, the company may face a fine of up to 10% of income per year preceding the decision on the violation.
The net income of the state enterprise in 2021 increased by 2.7 times, to UAH 141.81 million, and its net profit increased to UAH 42.43 million from UAH 950,000 in 2020.
In the first half of 2022, the revenue of ProZorro.Sale decreased by 36.3%, to UAH 25.14 million, and its net loss amounted to UAH 6.92 million against UAH 550,000 of net profit for the first half of 2021.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) will consider a possibility of the acquiring of agro-trading firm Agro-Dilo LLC (Pervomaisk town, Mykolaiv region), a subsidiary of the international holding ED&F Man, by Deimanivsky Dar LLL (village of Deimanivka, Poltava region), part of the agricultural holding A.G.R. Group.
The relevant issue is contained in an agenda of a meeting of the state regulator on January 27.
According to the A.G.R. Group, Deimanivsky Dar is part of the Hrebinka cluster in Poltava region. In addition to this region, the group of companies cultivates land in Kyiv, Chernihiv and Sumy regions, all grown products are sold on foreign markets.
The total land bank of the agricultural holding is up to 33,000 hectares, it includes 20 companies. The main activity is cultivation and storage of grain crops, mainly corn and soybeans, as well as animal husbandry.
The founder and sole shareholder of A.G.R. Group and its member companies is Armenian citizen Misak Khidiryan.
ATF Agro-Dilo is a subsidiary of the international holding ED&F Man, one of the world’s largest suppliers of food, sugar, spices, coffee, animal feed and other types of food products. Agro-Dilo is mainly engaged in cultivation of grain crops.
In the company’s charter capital with a total amount of UAH 808.1 million, some 78.06% belongs to British company ED&F Man Treasury Management PLC, and 21.93% belongs to ED&F Man Ukraine Investments BV (the Netherlands).
ED&F Man Ukraine has been working in Ukraine since 2007. The company owns Zasilsky sugar refinery (Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv region) with a production capacity of up to 50,000 tonnes of sugar per year. ED&F Man is also implementing a comprehensive investment program for land irrigation in Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.
During its work in Ukraine, the company has invested more than $150 million in Ukrainian agribusiness.
Among the company’s clients in Ukraine: Coca-Cola Ukraine, Sandora LLC, Conti Group, Rosynka, Pervomaisk Dairy Products Canning Plant and others.
The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) on Tuesday fined a total of UAH 283.62 million a group of companies (Interstarch Ukraine LLC, PrJSC Dniprovsky starch-molasses plant, PrJSC Intercorn) related to the Roshen confectionery corporation, the beneficial owner of Oleksiy Poroshenko (son of the fifth President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko).
“The fine was imposed for two violations of the legislation on the protection of economic competition through abuse of monopoly position in the national market for the primary sale of corn syrup and glucose syrups,” the committee said in a press release.
The committee claimed that the specified group unreasonably increased prices for molasses and syrups in April-June 2018, February-March 2019 and October 2020, and also set different conditions for equivalent agreements with buyers of this product during 2018-2020 without justified reasons.
During the investigation, which lasted a year and a half, the committee established that in 2018-2020 the group was the only producer of molasses in Ukraine and the largest and most powerful market participant with shares of 65.49% (in 2018), 93.86% (in 2019) and 79.75% (in 2020), with importers being the only competitors.
It was also found that the group is the only producer of corn starch in Ukraine with shares of 74.26% (in 2018) and 96.79% (in 2019).
“By analyzing the price behavior of the group, it was found that during 2018-2020, the price for the molasses and syrup increased and decreased by it haphazardly. The group carried out price exemptions for certain business entities (confectionery factories),” the committee said.
In particular, according to the committee, one of the buyers of molasses was offered low prices in an attempt to prevent the transfer to a competitor (importer) – Amylco LLC (Rostov region of the Russian Federation), as well as to prevent other buyers of molasses, which capacities located in the eastern part of Ukraine.
“At the same time, the committee established that at present, the Ukrkondprom association has begun to receive initiatives to impose a ban on the import of molasses from the Russian Federation. And on January 8, 2019, by government resolution No. 1154, the ban was introduced,” the committee said.
In addition, the committee revealed that the group applied various conditions in contracts for the supply of molasses with buyers without objectively justified reasons: the procedure for ordering and agreeing on the supply of goods, terms of payment for goods, sanctions, etc.
According to the committee, the group’s participation in vertical integration – from growing corn to producing confectionery products – could give Roshen a significant competitive advantage by purchasing molasses at lower prices than other confectioners.
As a result, the committee fined UAH 210.19 million Interstarch Ukraine LLC, UAH 47.46 million PrJSC Dniprovsky starch-molasses plant and UAH 25.98 million PrJSC Intercorn, and also ordered them to terminate violations.
