Law on Competition comes into force in Uzbekistan

Uzbekistan, Tashkent, Jan. 9 / Trend D. Azizov / The new law was adopted by the legislative house of the parliament in November 2011 and approved by the Senate in December 2011. Uzbek President Islam Karimov signed the law on January 6 2012. The law on "Competition and Restriction of Monopolistic Activity in Commodity Markets", adopted in 1996, was in force in Uzbekistan up to now. The adoption of the new law is stipulated by the fact that a number of rules of the existing law do not quite correspond to the level of economic development in the country. In particular, the issues of control over competition in the financial service markets and the regulation of the auction (tenders) and exchange auction were not covered. The main purpose of the new law is to further regulate the relations of competition in commodity and financial markets. According to the law, the financial market is the sphere of circulation of financial services rendered by the banks and other credit, insurers and financial organizations, as well as the services of professional participants of the securities market in Uzbekistan or its part. The new law clarified the definition of some concepts. Some of them were expanded and included into separate articles - "A group of persons", "Dominant position", "Monopolistically high price of the goods" and "Exclusive low price of the goods." Such new concepts as "financial service", "relevant market", "state authorities", "anticompetitive actions", "coordination of economic activity", "agreement", "concerted actions", and "economic concentration" were also introduced along with the specification of common definition. Furthermore, a separate chapter of the law is devoted to the anti-competitive actions. It prohibits unfair competition, as well as coordinated actions and deals of economic entities, acts and actions of state bodies, and associations of legal entities that restrict competition. Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az