The Verkhovna Rada launched the reform of the Antimonopoly Committee

The Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian Parliament) adopted in the second reading and as a whole draft law No. 5431 on strengthening the role of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU). It was supported by 258 MPs.

The MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak reported this.

The bill was submitted to the parliament in April 2021. He should bring Ukrainian competition legislation closer to European legislation.

So far, deputies have launched only the first part of the antimonopoly reform, which expands and improves the powers of the AMCU. For example, he will now be able to search and seize documents.

The bill improves the mechanism of exemption from liability for participants in anti-competitive concerted actions (leniency), introduces the institution of settlement and joint liability of defendants when paying fines.

Among other things, the draft law provides for an increase in salaries in the AMCU. They were enshrined directly in the law with reference to the size of the living wage — from 8 (employee of the territorial branch, more than UAH 21 000 in 2023) to 30 (chairman of the AMCU, more than UAH 80 000 in 2023).

On the eve of the vote, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption (NAPC) and the Ministry of Economy declared that they support the draft law and consider it an important milestone of European integration.

Critics of the draft law from the opposition, in particular Zheleznyak, consider the document imperfect.

"One manual body is being created with extraordinary powers to get into business," the MP commented.