Parliament approves bill on improving activities of Antimonopoly Committee

A total of 245 MPs supported the document at first reading, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to the explanatory note to bill No.5431, MPs developed the concept of competition law reform in cooperation with Twinning and FTC partners.

The document aims to improve the work of the Antimonopoly Committee in the field of protection of economic competition. The draft law proposes: to improve the conceptual and categorical apparatus of legislation on the protection of economic competition; to improve the mechanisms of control over the concentrations of economic entities; legislate mechanisms for setting priorities for the Committee's activities; to determine at the legislative level the procedure for conducting checks of business entities; to improve the mechanisms of exemption from liability for participants in anti-competitive concerted actions; to introduce institutes of settlement in cases; to improve the procedure for compensation for damage caused by violations of legislation on protection of economic competition; to introduce joint and several liability of defendants when paying fines etc.

At the same time, the Antimonopoly Committee will receive additional tools for checks: the possibility of conducting physical searches and confiscation of documents and ensuring the exchange of information with other law enforcement agencies.

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