09 July 2021, Friday, 14:27 112

Economy Ministry: Imposition Of Toughest Sanctions Against Nova Poshta Violates Legislation

Редактор: Daria Zubkova

The Ministry of Economy of Ukraine says that the imposition of the toughest sanctions worth UAH 325.85 million by the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection against the Nova Poshta express delivery company goes in violation of the legislation.

The ministry has said this in a statement, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

The ministry condemned such an approach to the calculation of fines as it is subjective and inadmissible.

According to the report, the said situation will be closely analyzed and all the circulation will be thoroughly verified.

According to the report, in order to eliminate the subjective component in determining the level of fines for similar violations, the Ministry of Economy has already developed a bill that provides for the establishment of a fixed amount of such fines.

At the same time, in accordance with Article 12 of the Law of Ukraine On Basic Principles of State Supervision (Control) in Field of Economic Activity, in case of application of sanctions for violation of legislative requirements, in particular, if the law provides for minimum and maximum amounts of sanctions, the principle of proportionality of violation and punishment is taken into account.

However, based on the results of inspections carried out on the basis of a consumer's appeal regarding the delivery by Nova Poshta in Kharkiv, as well as an appeal by another consumer regarding a probable shortfall in a branch in the Kharkiv region, decisions were made to impose penalties on the company in the amount of UAH 151 million, which is 10% of the company's sales volume in February 2021, and UAH 174 million, which is 10% of the volume of products sold in March 2021.

Item 8 of Section 1 of Article 23 of the Law of Ukraine On Protection of Consumer Rights provides for a fine in the amount of 1 to 10 percent of the cost of products sold for the previous calendar month for creating obstacles to officials of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection in checking the quality of products, as well as the rules of trade and other types of services, but not less than 10 non-taxable minimum incomes of citizens.

Thus, the amounts of fines imposed on Nova Poshta are the maximum.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, head of the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection Vladyslava Mahaletska said that the amount of the fine imposed by the service on the Nova Poshta company in the amount of UAH 325.85 million does not correspond to the violation.

Earlier, the State Service of Ukraine for Food Safety and Consumer Protection imposed a fine on Nova Poshta of UAH 325.85 million.

The department stated that it carried out unscheduled inspections of two branches of Nova Poshta in Kharkiv, during which the company did not provide documents and explanations, which created obstacles for service officials during the inspection.

In turn, Nova Poshta stated that the reason for the fine was a client's complaint about damage to a parcel worth UAH 500.

At the same time, according to the company, the inspection of the branches was carried out in violation of the current legislation, and Nova Poshta is challenging the fine in the Regional Administrative Court of Kharkiv.