The Antimonopoly Committee considered the complaint of the Ukrainian Club of Agrarian Business (UKAB) about price overcharging as a result of the monopoly position of JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” on the transport market. Representatives of the committee stated that they did not find any violations in the carrier’s activities. Unsatisfied with such a decision, UKAB filed a lawsuit with the Commercial Court of Kyiv.
In April 2023, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) began a review of the case regarding JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia’s” violation of the Law on Economic Competition in 2022-2023 on the market for the transportation of goods by rail transport and the provision of grain trucks for use. The basis for this was a statement submitted by UKAB, in which it is claimed that JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” occupies a monopoly position on the cargo transportation market and abuses this position.
According to the statement, JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” carried out the following actions:
- Creating an artificial shortage of services for the use of grain wagons. JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” organized auctions for the use of grain trucks, changing the number and period of loading wagons, which affected pricing.
- Limiting the offer at auctions of services for the use of grain trucks in a smaller quantity than available at JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia”, which created conditions for setting inflated prices for the use of grain trucks, which would not be possible under conditions of competition on the market.
- The lack of a transparent mechanism for forming and informing all participants of cargo transportation regarding the sequence of border crossings, which led to unpredictable delivery times and charging fees for each day of overtime idleness of grain trucks in the conditions of artificially creating queues at the western borders.
According to the representatives of UKAB, as a result of these actions, conditions were created for an increase in transportation prices for grain producers who use the services of JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia”, which led to an increase in the prices of goods for end consumers. This limited competition in the market and negatively affected consumers.
“Despite the existence of signs of violation of the law on economic competition by JSC “Ukrzaliznytsia” and the provision of numerous evidences in the application, the Antimonopoly Committee refused to consider the case, referring to the non-disclosure of the facts of violation of the legislation by the UZ. In response, on June 17, 2024, UKAB filed a claim to the court on invalidating the decision of the AMCU, its cancellation and resumption of the investigation”. – stated in Ukrainian Club of Agrarian Business.
