Ukraine’s State Service for Food Safety and Consumer Protection will cancel the Hr 325.85 million ($11.9 million) imposed on Ukraine’s largest private delivery company, Nova Poshta.
Vladyslava Mahaletska, head of the state service, announced the decision on July 9, saying the fines were unreasonably high.
The Kharkiv Oblast department of the State Food and Consumer Service imposed the fines on the delivery service following two customer complaints and subsequent inspections of its local branches earlier this year.
According to local Kharkiv Oblast officials, Nova Poshta allegedly violated consumers’ rights and didn’t provide necessary documents during inspections.
Nova Poshta, for it’s part, stated that the fines are unfair, calling the actions of the state service as “manipulation of its powers by the state.”
Mahaletska says that lawyers are now preparing the documents for the cancellation of fines. “We are dealing with the “culprits” of the scandal in the Kharkiv Oblast. I am personally interested in the reasons for this decision,” Mahaletska wrote on Facebook.
On Jan. 27, the officials received a complaint from a customer whose aquarium had been delivered by Nova Poshta broken. According to the client, the company refused to reimburse its cost – Hr 500 ($18).
On March 10, another customer complained to the state service that Nova Poshta had short-changed him.
The officials inspected local branches of Nova Poshta in response to both complaints. Allegedly, Nova Poshta didn’t provide the necessary documents to complete the inspection. According to state service rules, in this case, companies are required to pay 1% to 10% of the sales volume for the previous month.
Nova Poshta claims, however, that inspectors did not show inspection documents to the right personnel member, nor did they record the inspection according to regulations.
Moreover, the company states that the fines were unreasonably high. Nova Poshta filed a lawsuit against the officials and appealed to the ombudsman and international human rights organizations.
“We consider it unlawful that the fine was calculated on the basis of the turnover of the entire company, and not the branch in which the inspection was carried out,” reads the statement of the company.
