Recent Significant Amendments To Antimonopoly Legislation In Kazakhstan

In the beginning of June, the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on improvement of the entrepreneurial activity"1 (the Law) entered into force.

The most crucial and significant amendments introduced by the Law to the competition protection legislation, in particular, to the provisions of the Entrepreneurial Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan2 (the Code) are presented below.

Competition protection requirements while organizing and conducting procurement of goods and bidding (tender) Although the competence of the antimonopoly body included preventing market participants from anticompetitive agreements, the antimonopoly body did not actively advocate and investigate competition issues in the course of conducting tenders. A new provision on the protection of competition during the organization of procurement of goods and bidding has been added to the Code, and new terms such as "procurement organizer" and "procurement and bidding operator" have been established. Pursuant to the Law, procurement organizer, procurement and bidding operator are prohibited from coordinating the activity of procurement providers and bidding participants, if this action will or may lead to the prohibition, restriction or elimination of competition. Moreover, procurement organizers, except for procurement being performed electronically, and subsoil users providing information on the procurement conducted to the competent state bodies or authorized organizations in compliance with Kazakhstan legislation, are required to provide an annual procurement plan and information on the procurement conducted to the antimonopoly body in due time. Procurement and bidding operators, except for the procurement and bidding being performed electronically, shall also provide information on the bidding conducted to the antimonopoly body. Additionally, the antimonopoly body is entitled to demand access to the information system of electronic procurement and bidding from authorized bodies.

The abovementioned amendments may lead to numerous investigations in the field of procurement, tenders and bidding, where, considering recent investigations, special attention will be paid most likely to anticompetitive agreements.

Application of different prices or different terms by the market participants holding a dominant or a monopoly position The Law has introduced clarifications regarding the situation related to the...

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