The article considers the threats to the antitrust and competitive environment as well as for the economic system in general, which may arise as a result of the implementation of certain draft proposals to abolish the Economic Code of Ukraine under the guise of the idea of civil legislation’s recodification.

The purpose of the article is to predict the consequences of the abolition of the Economic Code of Ukraine for competition law and antitrust policy objectives, which can be identified by careful study of the systematizing role of the Code in antitrust regulation and its unique legal provisions that allow to support today the balance of interests in the relations between small/medium-sized and large business, to protect the rights of consumers from abuse of market power and other anti-competitive behavior.

It has been established that hasty legislative decisions on the exclusion of certain legislative acts from the legal system of Ukraine and decodification in favor of a certain theoretical model or political project – is a very dangerous phenomenon, as it not only destroys the relationship of legal means, the practice of their application but also destabilizes the rule of law as a whole. Relevant initiatives are especially dangerous for the economy, where the stability of regulation is in itself a value that provides business planning and forms the imagination of investors about the predictability of state regulation in the economy of Ukraine.

The author concludes that the abolishing of the Economic Code creates a gap in the definitions of basic legal concepts of economic activity, enterprises, entrepreneurship guarantees, which form the basis of competition law as well as the jurisdiction of commercial litigation, which includes disputes in the field of economic competition. It is substantiated that the existing inconsistencies and duplications between the Economic Code of Ukraine and special laws should be consistently eliminated by focusing the Economic Code of Ukraine on the fundamental principles of protection of economic competition.

The negative for competitive relations from the coercive legislative pressure on the choice of competitive forms of doing business, which sets as a result of the abolition of the Economic Code of Ukraine, is substantiated. The organizational fees that will lay on business entities as a result of the relevant transformations have been identified, although the legal form of the relevant business was guaranteed by law at the time of the establishment of the enterprises.

It is concluded unacceptable for the development of economic competition to abandon the institution of sample and model contracts adopted by public authorities and aimed at limiting arbitrariness on the part of economic entities that have market power. The nonalternative nature of the procedures established by the Economic Code regarding the procedure for concluding contracts and judicial jurisdiction over the relevant incentives, the absence of which can turn the freedom of contract in relations with monopolists into a legal fiction, is revealed.

The risk of losing the legal basis for the penalties in contracts with the participation of public economic entities, which is likely to lead to the arbitrary consolidation of the relevant provisions to the harm of small and medium-sized businesses.

Bibliography

Edited books

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2. Ohliad pretsedentnoho prava Sudu Yevropeiskoho Soiuzu u sferakh, shcho rehuliuiutsia Uhodoiu pro asotsiatsiiu mizh Ukrainoiu ta YeS (Lazovski A ukladach) <https://eu-ua. kmu.gov.ua/sites/default/files/imce/ohliad-pretsedent no ho-prava-sudu-yevropeiskogosoiuzusferi-shcho-rehuliuiutsia-uhodoiu-pro-asotsiatsiiu.pdf?fbclid=IwAR070OxuJEm2D5SQyAVx_k8fi9gb-7unppmnJbIFi5BEMdwBZ9QObv0bq8> (accessed: 14.11.2021) (in Ukrainian).

3. Shherbina V, ‘Ob opyte kodifikacii hozjajstvennogo zakonodatel’stva v Ukraine’ v Shherbina V, Vibrane: zbіrka statej (Lіra-K 2015) 441–5 (in Russian).

Journal articles

4. Esposito R, ‘The Social Enterprise Revolution in Corporate Law: A Primer on Emerging Corporate Entities in Europe and the United States and the Case for the Benefit Corporation’ (2013) 639 Wm. & Mary Bus. L. Rev. (in English).

5. Poliukhovych V, ‘Do pytannia pro reformuvannia (rekodyfikatsiiu) hospodarskoho zakonodavstva Ukrainy’ (2019) 11 Pidpryiemnytstvo, hospodarstvo i pravo 117–22 (in Ukrainian).

 6. Rieznikova V, ‘Skasuvannia Hospodarskoho kodeksu Ukrainy: sposib efektyvnoi modernizatsii pravovoho rehuliuvannia hospodarskoi diialnosti chy destabilizuiuchyi faktor dlia sfery hospodariuvannia?’ [2016] 2 (14) Pravo ta innovatsii 110–2 (in Ukrainian).

Conference papers

7. 10 rokiv zastosuvannia Hospodarskoho kodeksu Ukrainy: suchasnyi stan ta perspektyvy vdoskonalennia kodyfikatsii: zb. dopovidei nauk.-prakt. konf. (Podtserkovnyi O holova red kol, Yurydychna literatura 2014) (in Ukrainian).

8. Zablodska I, Podtserkovnyi O, Boichenko E, ‘Ekonomichni vytraty na pryvedennia yurydychnymy osobamy svoikh orhanizatsiino-pravovykh form ta dokumentiv u vidpovidnist do vymoh Tsyvilnoho kodeksu Ukrainy’ v Druhi naukovi chytannia pam’iati akademika V. K. Mamutova (Ustymenko V red, IEPD imeni V K Mamutova NAN Ukrainy 2020) 39–45 (in Ukrainian).

 9. Hrudnytska S, ‘Vidmina Hospodarskoho kodeksu protyrichytyme Konstytutsii Ukrainy i mizhnarodnym dokumentam’ v Trends of modern science – 2016: materials of the XII Internat. scient. and pract. conf., vol 9: Low science (Sheffield 2016) 41–6 (in Ukrainian).