Court Confirms Legality Of Imposing UAH 274 Million Fine On Tedis Ukraine By Antimonopoly Committee

On March 16, 2023, the Northern Economic Court of Appeal confirmed the legality of the imposition by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) of a fine of UAH 274 million on the distribution company Tedis Ukraine (former Megapolis-Ukraine).

This is stated in the message of the AMCU, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"On December 16, 2016, the AMCU admitted that Tedis Ukraine LLC, occupying a monopoly (dominant) position on the national cigarette distribution market from 2013 to September 2015, abused it. For this violation, Tedis Ukraine LLC was fined the total amount more than UAH 431 million. By the same decision, the company was obliged within two months from the date of its receipt to stop violations of the legislation on the protection of economic competition and to eliminate the causes of their occurrence, as well as to report monthly on the prices and volumes of sales of cigarettes according to the established form for three years. And if the company paid the fines in installments during 2017-2020, then the additional obligations were not fulfilled in full," the message reads.

As part of a new case, the AMCU again fined Tedis Ukraine UAH 274.23 million for this, while this decision was appealed by the company in the economic court.

"By the decision of the Economic Court of the city of Kyiv dated July 19, 2022, the claim of Tedis Ukraine was satisfied, and the decision of the committee was recognized as invalid. AMCU, not agreeing with such a decision, filed a complaint with the Northern Economic Court of Appeal. According to the result of the review, the appellate authority upheld the legality of the decision of the committee, and Tedis Ukraine refused to satisfy the claim," the message says.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on March 17, 2021, the AMCU fined the Tedis Ukraine company for UAH 274.23 million for incomplete implementation of the decision from 2016.

In June 2018, the Supreme Court rejected the Tedis Ukraine company's claim to invalidate the decision of the AMCU to impose a fine of UAH 431 million on the company for abuse of its monopoly position.

In December 2016, the Antimonopoly Committee fined Tedis Ukraine UAH 431,199,450 for violating the legislation on the protection of economic competition.

Thus, the fine was imposed for violations in the form of setting such prices for wholesalers and retailers, which would be impossible to set under the conditions of the existence of significant competition in the cigarette distribution market, as well as for partial refusal to sell the product in the absence of alternative sources of purchase.