Lawyers Profiles
Ulyana KHROMYAK Ulyana KHROMYAK works in EVERLEGAL

In 2015, the Ukrainian competition law enforcer (AMCU) was busy with additional pressures caused by staff optimisation. The newly-appointed management focused, among other things, on power and gas, FMCG and pharma retail, utilities, and domestic air services sectors. The majority of enforcement actions related to abuse of dominance, cartels and a fair share of unfair competition cases. A number of clients continue to apply for the amnesty announced by the AMCU for past non-notified mergers, which will last until 15 September 2016. The number of AMCU decisions which were appealed against in courts was not significant as the courts are currently reluctant to second-guess the Committee.

The major recent achievement was the passing of merger control reform laws aimed at aligning the Ukrainian regime with EU rules. From 18 May 2016, the two sets of reshaped statutory thresholds will come into force, whose expected effect is to capture higher value transactions with closer nexus to Ukraine rather than sweeping deals with remote ties to Ukraine.

The number of Phase II reviews is expected to increase as the AMCU will look into concentrations having real impact on the Ukrainian market with emphasis on substantive analysis. A fast track review will be introduced for certain low-impact transactions. More straightforward notification and disclosure rules are expected to be adopted by the AMCU soon. The Committee became more transparent by publishing its decisions and by adopting fining guidelines so making the AMCU’s approach to penalties more predictable. Notably, the AMCU is preparing for full scale introduction of state aid rules in 2017.

Some issues still remain to be resolved. For example, a target is still taken as a part of the seller’s group for calculating the thresholds, ancillary restraints (e.g. non-compete clauses) are still cleared separately from a merger notification, and the courts are not authorised to review a fine or remedy imposed by the AMCU.

For 2016, we expect the role of legal counsel to become more complex in merger filings with additional emphasis on substantive analysis with use of economics experts. Given the AMCU’s scrutiny, the volume of work related to dominance abuse, cartel investigations and public procurement disputes will also increase and the parties will appeal against more of the AMCU’s decisions given the increasing sums of fines.


Ulyana KHROMYAK is a notable practitioner in

Antitrust / Competition