In the Zhambyl region, an individual entrepreneur challenged a fine for setting a monopolistically high price for drywall. The appellate instance dismissed the case, reports infohub.kz.
According to the official Telegram channel of the Zhambyl regional courts, the appellate court reviewed an administrative case against the entrepreneur under Part 3 of Article 159 of the Administrative Code (abuse of dominant position by setting a monopolistically high price).
The court of first instance found the entrepreneur guilty of selling drywall at monopolistically high prices in the Zhambyl region. He was fined over 1.4 million tenge, with confiscation of monopoly income totaling 4.6 million tenge.
Disagreeing with the ruling, the entrepreneur appealed, stating that his dominant position had not been established in the manner prescribed by law, and that the antimonopoly authority's conclusions were based solely on the methodology for identifying monopolistically high prices.
The judicial panel concluded that the authorized body had not proven that the entrepreneur holds a dominant position in the market. Moreover, the methodology used during the inspection does not confirm such status.
Furthermore, the court noted that a high price for a product in itself is not a violation of the law. Since sufficient evidence of abuse of dominant position was not provided, the court concluded that there was no administrative offense in the entrepreneur's actions.
The ruling of the court of first instance was overturned, the proceedings were terminated due to the absence of an offense, and the appeal was upheld. The ruling has entered into legal force.