State Aid for Businesses: preventing anti-competitive use of state aid

Ukraine

On 2 August 2017, the Law “On State Aid for Business Entities” (which was adopted back in July 2014) came into force (the “State Aid Law”).

The State Aid Law applies to a wide range of businesses, excluding those related to investment in infrastructure objects with application of public procurement procedures or providing services that constitute public economic interest.

Based on the State Aid Law, the aid shall only be provided to businesses upon review and approval by the Anti-Monopoly Committee of Ukraine (the “AMC”) with some limited exceptions (e.g., if the aid does not exceed EUR 200,000 for any three consecutive years per company). The State Aid Law does not establish an exhaustive list of state aid types, however mentions a few different forms it may be provided in, including subsidies, grants, tax privileges, deferrals or instalments of taxes, write-off of debts, write-offs of penalties, etc.

The AMC is also responsible for monitoring all the state aids provided prior to 2 August 2017 and for investigating of violations of the State Aid Law. Should the AMC reveal that the state aid was unlawfully granted, such aid shall be terminated and the beneficiary of such aid shall pay it back in full (save for the cases when the 10-years limitation period has expired). Therefore, state aid providers should notify the AMC of any state aid granted by them prior to 2 August 2017 and should align such state aid with new rules until 2 August 2022.

The AMC has already established the respective department in charge of the state aid monitoring and launched the publicly available State Aid portal, which includes the State Aid Register, as well as allows notifying of the state aid, unlawful state aid or its unintended use.

The State Aid Law is intended to increase transparency in the distribution of state aid and thus, prevent any anti-competitive use of state aid provision.

Legislation:

The Law of Ukraine “On State Aid for Business Entities” Nо 1555-VII dated 1 July 2014