UNJUSTIFIED ACQUISITION OF PROPERTY BY A BUSINESS ENTITY AS A RESULT OF VIOLATION OF LEGISLATION ON THE PROTECTION OF ECONOMIC COMPETITION (DISTORTION OF THE OUTCOMES OF BIDDING, AUCTIONS, COMPETITIONS, AND TENDERS)

Abstract

The business entity's primary activity is gaining of profit, which can also be expressed in the form of the latter's property. In the course of economic activity, business entities may resort to obtaining profit at the cost of committing anti-competitive concerted actions, including but not exclusively, by distorting the results of trades, auctions, contests, tenders. The unjustified acquisition of property by a business entity can be considered from the point of view of making a profit by such an entity on the basis of anti-competitive concerted actions. Recognition of the business entity’s actions by the body of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) is, if not a prejudgment, then a sufficient confirmation of the anti-competitiveness of the business entity's actions in judicial practice. The issue of groundlessness is not the lack of grounds for making a profit, but their disappearance, in the event that the AMCU issues a decision on recognizing the business entity’s actions as violating economic competition and bringing such entity to liability in the form of a fine in accordance with the Art. 52 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Protection of Economic Competition". The decision of the AMCU was considered as the basis for the lack of substantiated confirmation of the acquisition of property (profit) by the business entity. The article considers such type of anti-competitive concerted actions as the distortion of the results of trades, auctions, contests, tenders, the commission of which is the basis for recognizing the absence of legal grounds for profit-making by the business entity. The provisions of the Law of Ukraine "On the Protection of Economic Competition" and the powers of the AMCU in this area, the regulatory and legal framework for public procurement as an environment for the competition of participants were considered. Examples of distortion of the results of trades, auctions, contests, tenders have been studied. The issue of anti-competitive concerted actions not only by participants in trades, auctions, contests, tenders, but also by their customers, which are usually public authorities, local self-government bodies, management and control authorities, is considered. An example of the possibility of determining the profit received by a business entity in violation of competition rules is given.