Interpipe loses antimonopoly committee appeal, pays fine

Ukraine’s largest pipe and railway wheel producer
Interpipe (INTHOL) lost a court appeal by the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine
(AMCU) regarding tenders for railway wheels, according an Aug. 17 AMCU
statement.

The Northern Economic Court of Appeal on Aug. 9 overturned
the April decision by a
first-tier court, according to the filing. The April court decision declared
invalid and cancelled AMCU’s October decision to fine
Interpipe Ukraine and three other companies about UAH 69 mln (USD 2.6 mln) and
to bar them from participating in public procurements for three years. The AMCU
found the four companies guilty of distorting the results of 2018 tenders conducted
by Ukrainian Railways (RAILUA).

On Aug. 16, Interpipe Ukraine notified the AMCU that
it had paid the UAH 69 mln fine, the AMCU said.

Dmytro Khoroshun: Interpipe
should be able to continue offering the wheels it produces to Ukrainian
Railways via public procurement tenders even after this particular AMCU win, we
continue to think.

One solution may be for Interpipe to bid via companies
other than the four tender participants disciplined by the AMCU in October. For
example, in June and July
Interpipe NTRP, the direct producer of the railway wheels, participated in and
won two Ukrainian Railways tenders.