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Date of publication: 
2 March 2017

This review is somewhat different from a standard OECD competition peer review as its objective is to review the Antimonopoly Committee’s (AMC) progress in implementing the recommendations found in the peer reviews of the OECD (2008) and UNCTAD (2013) – with an emphasis regarding the competition regime, institutional arrangements, and the work product.

Relevant recommendations from the peer reviews are reiterated. The report does not hesitate to issue new recommendations in order to ensure that the AMC is given a coherent roadmap to guide reform efforts.

Key recommendations of the report include:

• Increase the AMC’s financial resources and institutional autonomy coherent with its mandate and importance to Ukraine’s economy. Upgrade technical infrastructure.
• Give the AMC the power to seize documents from business premises; conduct interviews of business officials, without prior consent of the firm; inspect private residences.
• Extend the leniency programme beyond the first applicant.
• Introduce individual as well as parental liability.
• Make AMC decisions directly enforceable to increase effectiveness and deterrence
• Allow interim injunctions pending the completion of investigations.
• Promote specialisation of competition law courts or judges.
• Improve AMC priority setting and project selection mechanisms and invest the AMC with more power to choose cases.
• Prioritise enforcement action against hard-core cartels.
• Favour structural merger commitments and implement effective monitoring.
• Increase AMC transparency, through agency guidelines and communication of AMC enforcement priorities and its interpretation of the law.
• Strengthen the evaluation regime and apply lessons learned to future cases.
• Train public procurement officials to better prevent and detect bid rigging and co-ordinate with the AMC.
• Position the AMC as a competition advocate within government by i) strengthening relations with other agencies and bodies; ii) developing AMC expertise in competition assessment.

This review was debated during the OECD Competition Committee meetings by senior officials of competition authorities and experts at the OECD headquarters in Paris on 29-30 November 2016. It reflects the status and progress in implementing the recommendations, and identifies a significant number of necessary reforms.

WHAT ARE PEER REVIEWS?

“Peer reviews” are a core element of the OECD work. The mechanisms of peer reviews vary, but it is founded upon the willingness of a country to submit its laws and policies to substantive questioning by other peers.

The process provides valuable insights into the country under study, getting to the heart of ways in which each country deals with competition and regulatory issues, from the soundness of its competition laws to the structure and effectiveness of its competition institutions.

Moreover, these reviews incorporate recommendations for changes in government policy.

GLOBAL FORUM ON COMPETITION

Since 2003, the OECD have conducted on a series of reviews of competition policy and law in several countries around the globe. Most of these reviews are performed during the Global Forum on Competition which is held every year at the OECD Headquarters in Paris.

View all other previous Global Forum reviews

Access the Forum webpage