News
EEC fined companies from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan for unfair competition
Fines amounting to around three million Russian rubles are to be paid by the professional organization of accountants "Chamber of Professional Accountants of the Republic of Kazakhstan" (Republic of Kazakhstan), the limited liability partnership "Eurasian Institute of Certified Public Accountants" (Republic of Kazakhstan), the public association "Institute of Professional Accountants and Auditors of Kyrgyzstan" (Kyrgyz Republic) and the CIPAEN institution (Kyrgyz Republic).
This decision was taken by the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission on January 17, 2023 following investigation into the cases of unfair competition in the EAEU cross-border market.
The reason for the investigation was an appeal submitted to the Commission by the Russian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (ICPA) providing services for training and certifying financial officers according to the qualified international procedures CIPA/СРА/СРА EURASIA.
In the course of the proceedings, it was established that the mentioned companies used their websites to spread inaccurate information about termination of ICPA activities. In that context, they presented their activities as a continued and evolved CIPA program using the applicant's brand and design features. Such actions misled consumers into believing that they were buying a service from the legal holder of the rights to grant CIPA/СРА/СРА EURASIA certificates. As a result of such actions, the ICPA lost some of its customers.
According to Bakhyt Sultanov, EEC Minister in charge of Competition and Antitrust Regulation, the companies' actions were classified as unfair competition prohibited by Article 76, Paragraph 2 of the Treaty on the EAEU.
"The Board's decision imposed a fine amounting to 662,500 rubles on each of the infringing companies. In accordance with the Methodology for calculating and imposing fines for violating the general rules of competition in the cross-border markets, fines are paid to the budget of the state in the territory of which an offender is registered. That is, these fines will be paid to the budgets of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in their national currencies at the exchange rate set on the date of the decision," noted the Minister.
To curtail anti-competitive behavior, the Board's decision also obligates the defendants to remove false information from their websites and to refrain from any future misconduct in the cross-border market of services related to programs for public accountant training and certification.
The Board's decision will take effect after 30 calendar days have elapsed from its publication on the official EEC website.
