The draft law, which has already passed its first reading in parliament, could create "systemic legal and economic risks for businesses," claim participants in the agricultural sector.
Previously, the agricultural business had already approached the Ministry of Economy and Commerce with proposals; however, most of their comments were ignored in the current version of the draft law.
Among the main concerns are the excessive powers of the antimonopoly regulator and the ambiguity of the wording, which allows for the interpretation of ordinary market actions as violations of the law. In particular, entrepreneurs are worried that the antimonopoly authority will be able to intervene in the activities of companies without hindrance. Article 23 of the draft law states that "employees of the antimonopoly authority have the right to access organizations, their information systems, and databases."
The threat of increased administrative pressure also raises concerns among the agricultural business, as the draft law requires the provision of any requested information, including commercial and official data. At the same time, the document lacks sufficient procedural guarantees that would limit the grounds for such actions.
Furthermore, the new criteria for recognizing a company as a monopolist raise questions among representatives of the agricultural sector. According to the proposed norm, "a dominant position may be recognized even if the market share is below 35 percent, if the antimonopoly authority identifies certain qualitative characteristics."
Given the limited regional markets in Kyrgyzstan, this innovation could lead to even ordinary processing or logistics enterprises being recognized as dominant.
The authors of the appeal emphasize that strict restrictions on vertical agreements jeopardize the traditional model of the sector's operation: farmer — processor — wholesale operator — retail chain. According to producers, such restrictions could increase risks for farmers and cause instability in supplies.
Additionally, the established threshold for mandatory antimonopoly compliance, which is set at a revenue of over 50 million soms, has also come under criticism. This corresponds to the level of medium-sized businesses in the agricultural sector, and the introduction of mandatory compliance could lead to increased administrative costs and complicate internal document flow.
Thus, the agricultural sector concludes that the adoption of this draft law could lead to an increase in the discretionary powers of the antimonopoly authority, a rise in administrative burdens on businesses, and the creation of additional legal risks for entrepreneurs.
