Publications -

UKRAINIAN LAW FIRMS 2012

Andrii ZABLOTSKYI, Associate, Head of International Trade Law Department with Volkov & Partners

In 2011 competition law violators were prosecuted in the form of fines totaling UAH 41 million, which is 50% higher than last year. As a result of the activity of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) in socially important markets, entrepreneurs retained UAH 489.2 million. The AMCU's agencies prevented 4,500 violations of competition law, which is 37.2% more than in 2010. Among them about 1,940 violations for abuse of dominant position, 350 — for anticompetitive concerted actions, 1,000 — for anti-competitive actions by government bodies and more than 450 cases of unfair competition.
These findings point out to an increasing role of the AMCU as a supervisory authority over economic competition.

General Overview
Investigations may be initiated directly by the AMCU on the basis of the information previously received during market research and similar proceeding cases, as well as on the basis of information from third parties. It should be mentioned that the information from other government bodies, ministries and agencies may also become a reason for initiation of a case. It is noteworthy that the terms for the AMCU's investigation are not established, which leaves a lot of open questions behind and, at the same time, requires a clear regulatory policy...

UKRAINIAN LAW FIRMS 2012

Andrii ZABLOTSKYI, Associate, Head of International Trade Law Department with Volkov & Partners
Iryna POLOVETS, Associate with Volkov & Partners

Ukraine's accession to the WTO in 2008 provided domestic producers with an opportunity to invoke legal trade restrictions against troublesome imports. The WTO system foresees three types of trade defence instruments that can be utilized by members: anti-dumping and countervailing measures, which are authorized by Article VI of the GATT and the Agreements On Implementation of Article VI of the GATT and On Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, and safeguards which are permitted by Article XIX and the Agreement On Safeguards. In Ukrainian national legislation there are three laws that correspond to the above-mentioned WTO disciplines and regulate application of protective measures against dumped and subsidized imports, as well as from increasing imports. The crucial difference between the three remedies is that anti-dumping and countervailing measures can be taken only against unfair trade practices, while safeguard measures are implemented against products imported under fair trade conditions.

The Overall Tendencies
Since its accession to the WTO, Ukraine has proven itself to be one of the most active users of trade defence instruments. Since the accession, Ukraine has initiated and concluded 5 anti-dumping and 7 safeguard investigations. In 2011, the Interdepartmental Commission on International Trade (the Commission) commenced 2 new safeguard and 2 anti-dumping investigations. The safeguards investigations target imports of oil products and autos, while the anti-dumping ones were invoked against imports of slate and float glass. The number of safeguard investigations in Ukraine grew exponentially in the last few years. Since 1999, when the above-mentioned trio of laws on protection of domestic producers came into effect, Ukraine has initiated 29 anti-dumping and 35 safeguard (or, according to national terminology, special) investigations. In the meantime, according to the official WTO statistics, anti-dumping is a more often used instrument among WTO members. From the time of the WTO's creation till the beginning of 2011, members initiated 216 safeguard and 3,853 anti-dumping investigations. The tendency in Ukraine corresponds to the overall tendency of the drop in the number of anti-dumping investigations reported by the WTO Secretariat in 2010(1)...

“Zerkalo Nedeli. Ukraine”  
№46, December 16, 2011

Bek Marianna, Associate,
Oleksiy Volkov, Managing Partner, 
Volkov and Partners Law Firm  

A citizen of the modern information society is an individual whose personal data (PD) is processed automatically. Is it agreed with the constitutional principle of privacy?
 
A day-to-day environment.
You are an individual, participant of such legal relations as, for example labor ones. When getting a job you provide an employer with required private information, or PD, in other words, "the information about an individual who is identified or can be specifically identified." The employer will put it in its personal data database (PDD) of employees, and - congratulations - you've got the status of a subject of personal data (SPD). The employer in this case is the owner of PDD. This means that your personal data gets to be collected, stored, maintained, adapted, modified, renewed, used and distributed, depersonalized and even eliminated! In short, your data is handled through PDD. PD is processed by a person- manager of PDD appointed by the owner.
The owner may process your PD solely on the basis of you voluntary recorded consent (with the scope of data specified) in accordance with the stated purpose. In this case, the objective of data procession is linked to employment...