The Kyiv Economic Court ordered the Antimonopoly Committee (AMCU) to consider a claim accusing energy giant DTEK of anti-competitive behavior on Sept. 27.
DTEK, which is owned by Ukraine’s wealthiest oligarch, Rinat Akhmetov, has found itself the target of a complaint launched in August by customer Olga Evstigneeva.
She accused the company of creating an artificial coal shortage to jack up energy prices during the most frigid months of the year.
“This is the first customers’ victory against abuses of oligarchic monopolies. Yesterday, that didn’t even seem to be possible, ” Agia Zagrebelska, the founder of nonprofit Antitrust League, which is helping the plaintiff, told the Kyiv Post.
Reached for comment, a DTEK spokesman said that his company is not a party in this case and that he is “not aware of the legal basis for the court’s decision.”
“DTEK did not receive information about any investigations by the AMCU,” the company spokesman said. “Information from public sources states that the court ordered the AMCU to consider the customer’s application exclusively.”
On March 10, DTEK was fined by Ukraine’s energy regulator for failing to supply enough coal to operate three of its thermal power plants in December 2020 and January 2021, while neglecting to notify authorities about the critical fuel shortage.
If the charges against DTEK are true, this could mean that the company, which runs 17 mines and is responsible for a quarter of Ukraine’s electricity, deliberately cut coal supplies in the middle of winter’s coldest months and posed a threat to Ukraine’s national energy security by risking power outages.
DTEK has called the charges against it “baseless” and, in turn, blamed the regulatory body for incompetence, “market manipulations, selective application of European norms and direct administrative interference in the operation of the market.” These are the reasons for the current crisis, DTEK stated.
