The business court of Kyiv has declared invalid the decision of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine to collect a fine from Auchan Ukraine Hypermarket LLC (Kyiv) imposed after declaring the company guilty in the case on the cartel agreement between large food retail chains on the Ukrainian market.

Committee Head Yuriy Terentyev told Interfax-Ukraine that Auchan Ukraine Hypermarket LLC, METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine LLC, Billa-Ukraine, Fozzy-Food LLC, Fora LLC, Novus Ukraine LLC, private joint-stock company Furshet, subsidiary Furshet Center, Foodmarket LLC, ATB-market LLC and ACNielsen Ukraine did not agree with the decision of the committee regarding the fines and filed claims to court.

"The major part of claims was accepted by court, and the case was opened. The court of first instance did not satisfy the claims of Fozzy-Food, Fora, ATB-market, Billa-Ukraine, Novus Ukraine, Furshet, Furshet Center and ACNielsen Ukraine. The business court of Kyiv satisfied the claim of Auchan Ukraine Hypermarket," he said.

He added that the hearing of cases under claims of METRO Cash & Carry Ukraine and Foodmarket are underway.

Terentyev said that the court process suspend the execution of the committee's decision.

"Today the defenders have not fulfilled the decision, apart from EKO LLC which partially fulfilled it – the company paid the fine," he said.

The rest of defenders in the case on the cartel agreement in the persons of private joint-stock company X5 Retail Group Ukraine, Kray-2 LLC, Adventis LLC, Food-Center LLC, subsidiary Travers Market, SPAR-Center LLC and Mepromag LLC did not challenge the committee's decision at court. The committee has drawn up new claims to collect fines of UAH 16.926 million from the companies and oblige them to fulfill the committee's decision.