EVERLEGAL Secures a Landmark Victory in a Dispute Against the AMCU

EVERLEGAL team has successfully defended the rights of its client, a European chemical manufacturer, in a high-profile case against the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU), setting an important precedent for Ukrainian businesses. The Supreme Court’s final ruling in favor of the client marks a decisive step towards eliminating the AMCU’s practice of unjustly imposing fines on Ukrainian companies for failing to provide information held by foreign companies or those that the AMCU deems to be part of a corporate group with a Ukrainian entity.

Case Overview

For years, the AMCU has followed a practice of demanding that Ukrainian companies provide information about the activities of foreign entities that are either part of their corporate group (or are perceived by the AMCU as such) or are affiliated persons. When foreign companies refused to provide such information—often due to confidentiality concerns or the lack of legal grounds for disclosure—the AMCU would impose fines on the Ukrainian companies. In this case, the fine exceeded UAH 20 million.

Given the complexity of the case, EVERLEGAL team underwent two full rounds of litigation in all instances. It was only at the Supreme Court level, after repeated reviews by lower courts, that the team managed to achieve the annulment of previous decisions and the remand of the case for reconsideration. The court's instructions provided hope for a possible positive resolution in favor of the client.

Despite strong opposition from the first-instance court, the appellate court ultimately ruled in favor of our client, declaring the AMCU’s decision invalid.

Last week, the Supreme Court upheld the appellate court's ruling, putting an end to the case. In its decision, the Court made critical legal conclusions, including:

• Courts must determine whether the AMCU’s request for information is genuinely aimed at protecting competition in Ukraine or if it goes beyond its jurisdiction.
• When exercising its discretionary powers, the AMCU must act in good faith and avoid arbitrariness. The AMCU must have reasonable grounds to believe that the requested information is or could be in the possession of the entity from which it is requested. Otherwise, the principle of fair legal liability is violated—only the party responsible for an infraction can be held liable.
• The AMCU’s information requests (and the legal provisions they rely on) cannot set impossible or impractical compliance obligations.
• The term "ensuring the exchange of information", as stated in Article 63 of the Law, is not identical in meaning to "information exchange" itself.
• Control relationships for the purpose of determining a corporate group must be relevant to the economic activities subject to AMCU oversight. Simply belonging to the same corporate group does not create a single economic entity or an automatic obligation to exchange information related to an alleged violation.

Why Is This Important?

This victory is significant not only for our client but for the entire Ukrainian business community. The Supreme Court’s legal conclusions in this case provide stronger protection for businesses against the AMCU’s subjective interpretation of its powers when requesting information related to foreign entities' operations.

This case has demonstrated that Ukrainian companies must stand up for their rights and challenge unfair sanctions imposed by regulatory authorities. Moreover, it reaffirms that Ukrainian courts can serve as an effective mechanism for protecting business interests.

EVERLEGAL team has played a role in ensuring justice and legality in this complex and precedent-setting case.

EVERLEGAL Team on the Case

• Yevheniy Deyneko, Managing Partner

• Andriy Olenyuk, Partner

• Yuliia Vorontsova, Counsel