Article 169. Anticompetitive agreements of the Business Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan  

     1. It is recognized as a cartel and horizontal agreements between market entities are prohibited if such agreements lead or may lead to:

     1) the establishment or maintenance of prices (tariffs), discounts, surcharges (surcharges) and (or) margins;

     2) increase, decrease or maintain prices at auctions, distort the results of auctions, auctions and contests, including by dividing by lots;

     3) the division of the commodity market according to the territorial principle, the volume of sale or purchase of goods, the range of goods sold, or the composition of sellers or buyers (customers);

     4) reduction or cessation of production of goods;

     5) refusal to conclude contracts with certain sellers or buyers (customers).

     The provisions of subparagraph 2) of part one of this paragraph apply, inter alia, to agreements between market entities belonging to the same group of persons.

     2. Vertical agreements between market entities are prohibited if:

     1) such agreements lead or may lead to the establishment of the resale price of the goods, except in the case when the seller sets for the buyer (customer) the maximum resale price of the goods.;

     2) such an agreement provides for the obligation of the buyer (customer) not to sell the product to a market entity that is a competitor of the seller. Such a prohibition does not apply to agreements on the organization by the buyer of the sale of goods under a trademark or other means of individualization of the seller or manufacturer.;

     3) such an agreement provides for the obligation of the seller not to sell the product to a market entity that is a competitor of the buyer (customer).

     3. Agreements reached in any form between market entities that lead or may lead to restriction of competition, including those concerning:

     1) establishing or maintaining discriminatory conditions for equivalent contracts with other market entities, including the establishment of agreed terms for the purchase and (or) sale of goods;

     2) economically, technologically and otherwise unjustified establishment by market entities of different prices (tariffs) for the same product;

     3) unjustified restriction or termination of the sale of goods;

     4) conclusion of contracts provided that the counterparties accept additional obligations that, in their content or in accordance with business practices, do not relate to the subject of these contracts (unreasonable demands for the transfer of financial resources and other property, property or non-property rights);

     5) restricting access to the commodity market or eliminating other market entities from it as sellers (suppliers) of certain goods or their buyers.

    The prohibitions established by the first part of this paragraph do not apply to vertical agreements if the share of the market entity(s) in one of the commodity markets under consideration does not exceed twenty percent, with the exception of vertical agreements in the organization and conduct of procurement of goods and tenders or agreements that are contracts of public-private partnership, complex business license (franchising).

     4. Anticompetitive agreements may be concluded (reached) in writing and/or orally.

     5. Coordination of the actions of market entities by a third party who is not part of the same group of persons with any of these market entities and does not operate in the commodity market (commodity markets) in which the actions of market entities are coordinated is recognized as coordination of economic activity. It is prohibited to coordinate the economic activities of market entities that are capable of leading, leading to or having led to the consequences listed in paragraphs 1-3 of this article.

     6. Bans on anticompetitive agreements do not apply to agreements between market entities belonging to the same group of persons if one of such market entities has established control over another market entity, as well as if such market entities are under the control of one person.

     Control is understood as the ability of an individual or legal entity to directly or indirectly (through a legal entity or through several legal entities) determine decisions made by another legal entity through one or more of the following actions:

     1) disposal of more than fifty percent of the voting shares (shares in the authorized capital, shares) of a legal entity;

     2) performing the functions of the executive body of a legal entity;

     3) obtaining the right to determine the conditions for conducting business activities of market entities or to give these market entities mandatory instructions in accordance with a public-private partnership agreement, a comprehensive business license (franchising), a license agreement or other agreement between the copyright holder (a person authorized by the copyright holder) and market entities on the organization of the sale of goods under a trademark; or by another means of individualizing the copyright holder.

     7. The requirements of this article do not apply to agreements on the exercise of exclusive rights to the results of intellectual activity and equivalent means of individualization of a legal entity, means of individualization of goods, provided that such agreements have not led or cannot lead to restriction or elimination of competition.

     8. Agreements provided for in this article, with the exception of those specified in paragraph 1 of this article, shall be recognized as permissible if they do not impose restrictions on market entities that are not necessary to achieve the objectives of these agreements and do not create an opportunity to eliminate competition in the relevant commodity market, and if market entities prove that such agreements have or they can have their own result:

     1) assistance in improving the production (sale) of goods or stimulating technical (economic) progress or increasing the competitiveness of manufactured goods produced by the parties in the global commodity market;

     2) consumers receive a proportionate part of the advantages (benefits) that are acquired by the relevant persons from the commission of such actions.

President    

Republic of Kazakhstan     

© 2012. RSE na PHB "Institute of Legislation and Legal Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan" of the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan  

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