Kyiv, 19 May 2015. Following the proposal ofthe Cabinet of Ministers, earlier today the Ukrainian Parliament voted toappoint Yuriy Terentyev as the Chairman of the Antimonopoly Committee ofUkraine (AMC). Mr. Terentyev has over 18 years of experience as an in-housecounsel and compliance officer of Bristol-Myers Squibb, JTI, Metro Cash andCarry, and ArcelorMittal, all of which operate in sectors that aretraditionally under very close scrutiny of the competition authority ofUkraine. His appointment follows months of public deliberations and politicaldiscussions behind the scenes on how the competition agency should be reorganizedand run to ensure its independence and effectiveness in protecting economiccompetition in the country.

For more than a year after the previous chairman and threeAMC commissioners resigned in February 2014, the AMC had been managed by fiveremaining commissioners, including the acting chairman Mr. Mykola Barash. Therefresh of the AMC's leadership is one of the IMF requirements and theappointment of new commissioners is expected to follow shortly.

The AMC remains one of the most powerful and active Ukrainianregulators. Despite political uncertainty and staff reductions, during the lastyear the AMC became even more active in enforcement of competition laws,including investigations into a collusive behavior of undertakings, abuse ofdominance and unfair competition. Last month a fine of over 203.6 million UAH(8.83 million USD) was imposed on 14 retail store chains for anticompetitiveconcerted practices, which were based on exchange of information between theretailers through ACNielsen. Aggressive investigations in the retail,pharmaceutical and other industries, as well as delays in merger clearanceproceedings, provoked a flood of criticism on the AMC.