Punishment will be escalated for public authorities and administrations that restrict entrepreneurship from September 1

From 1 September 2022, financial penalties will be applied to business entities that commit anti-competitive acts and administrative responsibility will be intensified for public authorities and administrations for restricting entrepreneurial activities. This is stated in the decree of the president of Uzbekistan «On further reforms to improve the business environment and create conditions for sustainable economic growth through the development of the private sector».

The decree approved the following proposals of the Ministry of Economic Development and Poverty Reduction, the Anti-monopoly Committee, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Justice in order to further improve the competitive environment in the economy and reduce bureaucratic barriers for the private sector:

a) will not recognize and apply anti-monopoly measures against legal persons or individual entrepreneurs or groups of natural persons whose income from the sale of goods (services) for the last calendar year not more than ten thousand times the basic calculation amount (except for natural monopolist companies, participants of public procurement and exchange trades, business entities whose prices are regulated by the state);

(b) from of 1 September 2022, the imposition of financial penalties on business' entities that engage in anti-competitive behavior in the following cases:
- coordination of agreements (agreed actions) and economic activity, leading to the restriction of competition in the commodity and financial markets;
- abuse of monopoly position and high bargaining power in commodity and financial markets, unjustified price increases for socially and strategically important products, and unfair competition;
- infringement of the competition law in merging, and acquisition of shares in the authorized fund (authorized capital);
- anti-competitive actions in public tenders and violation of antitrust requirements.

Within a month, the Cabinet of Ministers will submit to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis (Parliament) a new version of the draft law «On Competition», which provides for the exact amount of financial fines and the procedure for their application. The draft law includes the transfer of all fines to the State budget and liability for other anti-competitive actions.

v) from 1 September 2022, strengthening the administrative responsibility for:
- unlawful restriction of the free movement and realization (provision) of raw materials, goods, and services by public authorities;
- decisions to restrict competition by State unitary enterprises or institutions, associations of legal persons authorized to license, register, accredit and issue permits;
- failure to provide necessary documents and information at the request of the anti-monopoly authority, provision of knowingly false or misleading information.
The Cabinet of Ministers will submit a relevant bill to the Legislative Chamber of the Oliy Majlis within two months for:

g) elimination of existing monopolies through extensive private sector participation and abolishment of exclusive rights in accordance with the plan of action set out in Annex 1;

r) Since 1 January 2023, the introduction of the Competitiveness Development Index, which is annually reported to the Senate of the Oliy Majlis by the Anti-monopoly Committee.