All cartels’ agreements are illegal
When to exempt
All cartels’ agreements are illegal. Depending on the competition state in different countries, the government or law agencies can exempt the participants of concerted actions from associated fines. In Ukraine, the law provides cartels with exceptions plethora from the competition regulations. Competition law of Ukraine allows exemption of particular anticompetitive concerted behavior under specific conditions. The authority that governs collective anticompetitive actions involves general prohibition agreements and intellectual property transfer rights and exemption agreement for SME. Hence, when the antimonopoly committee of Ukraine is aware of the illegal deal, the cartel associated receives liability exemption. Also, a business that involves sole proprietorship and use of personal products in supplying activity that violates the cartels’ agreement can gain freedom of obligation. In such cases, the competition law provides traders with actions that, at some point, the AMC permits as per the set rules and regulations. Involved enterprises must submit applications to the AMCU for the permission requirement concerning the concerted anti-competitive actions that may take place.
Moreover, cartels focus on such cases of an agreement to prove before the law that the actions cause improvement in buying and selling of goods, goods productivity, technological development, and SME growth and development. Also, cartels can claim that the activities contribute to elaboration, rationalization, or optimization of exported and imported goods. Therefore, businesses cannot perform concerted actions without AMCU permission. For instance, the antimonopoly committee may deny company permission for concerted efforts because the conspiracy is a threat to consumers’ life or have adverse effects on marketing competition.[1] Hence, cartels can prove otherwise that their concerted actions associated have positive results that overcome the adverse impact; after that, they can obtain permission.
Conclusion
Cartel agreement is essential in trading activities. The regulation allows enterprises to improve productivity, technological, and economic development within a competing market niche. However, such businesses require protection from the antimonopoly committee and competition law to perform these concerted activities. Hence, it is the responsibility of the AMCU and competition law to outweigh the differences between the positive and negative outcomes of these concerted actions before granting permission.
[1] Ibid., 129