Legislative news digest: LEGAL HOTLINE 21.11.2019

Comparative Advertising Permitted

On November 12, 2019, the Parliament of Ukraine adopted the Law “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine (on the Harmonization of Ukraine’s Legislation on Comparative Advertising with the Law of the European Union)” (Draft Law No. 0953 dated 29 August 2019), allowing using of comparative advertising, which may contain images, references to goods, trademarks or other designations of goods being compared, trade (brand) name of the competitor whose services or goods are being compared.

Comparative advertising is permitted subject to the following conditions:

• Advertising shall not contain any signs of unfair business practices defined by consumer rights protection legislation;
• advertising shall compare similar goods that meet the same needs or purposes, or compares services in the same area or in the same activity;
• advertising shall objectively compare one or more material, comparable and representative characteristics of similar goods or services, including their price, information about which may influence the consumer’s choice;
• advertising shall not discredit or contain false information about the quality of similar goods of other manufacturers or sellers, shall not discredit the activities or status of third parties, the goodwill of trademarks, trade names, other features of competitors or indication of the place of origin of the goods;
• regarding goods with designation (simple or qualified) of the origin, the comparison shall be made with the goods with a similar designation;
• advertising shall not create confusion between the advertiser and the competitor, between the goods, trademarks, trade name and other designations of the advertiser and competitors;
• competitor’s goods protected by a trademark or trade name shall not be presented by imitation.

The Law is being prepared for submission to the President for signing and will enter into force on the date following its publication.

State Monopoly on Alcohol Production To Be Abolished from January 1, 2020.

On November, 15 2019, the Parliament of Ukraine approved Draft Law No. 2300 “On Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On State Regulation of Production and Circulation of Ethyl Alcohol, Cognac and Fruit Alcohols, Alcoholic Beverages, Tobacco Products and Fuel” on the Liberalization of Ethyl Alcohol Production” in principle.

Subject to obtaining the appropriate license, economic entities of any legal organisational form may produce ethyl alcohol.

The Law is being prepared for the second reading.

Employment Contracts To Be Executed in Electronic Forms

On November 12, 2019, the Parliament of Ukraine adopted Draft Law No. 2260 “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine”, which is primarily aimed to regulate public service matters. However, in has introduced amendments to the Labour Code as well.

The Code is to be supplemented with a new clause stating that for the purposes of the Labour Code, a written document means a document in hard or electronic copy, which also may be drawn up automatically.

Thus, an electronic version of the employment contract shall be deemed as a valid written document.

Land Sales Moratorium May Be Lifted

The Parliament of Ukraine approved Draft Law No. 2178-10 “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine on the Circulation of Agricultural Land” in principle.

The Draft Law proposes to establish the legal regulations of the circulation of agricultural land plots on the basis of market mechanisms for the transfer of rights to land plots, in particular:

• Ban on alienation of agricultural land of all forms of ownership will be lifted from October 1, 2020;
• the persons that can acquire ownership of agricultural land are identified;
• foreign residents may not acquire ownership of agricultural land until January 1, 2024;
• the minimum starting price for the sale of state-owned and municipal land plots at land auctions may not be lower than the cost determined by regulatory monetary valuation;
• restrictions on the aggregate area of agricultural land, which may be owned by a resident individual, legal entity and related persons are established;
• the lessee has the pre-emptive right to purchase the land;
• the state registrar is required to enter information on the price (value) of property rights, including usage rights, to the Register of Property Rights;
• residents are entitled to purchase land plots, to which they hold the right of permanent use and the right of lifetime ownership with hereditary succession, for farming purposes;
• the Law “On Sanctions” is supplemented with a new type of sanctions, “prohibition of land acquisition”.

The Law is being prepared for the second reading.

Entrepreneurs to Report Cash Settlements with Individuals to Banks

On November 7, 2019, the National Bank of Ukraine adopted Regulation No. 131 “On Approval of the Amendments to the Regulation on Cash Transactions in National Currency in Ukraine”.

Pursuant to the above Regulation of the National Bank of Ukraine, in case of cash withdrawal from current accounts for the purpose of cash payments to individuals, economic entities shall submit documents on the basis of which the cash payments are made at the request of the bank (branches, branches thereof) for the purpose of risk-oriented check of the clients.