The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine expects that the defenders in the case on the cartel agreement on the food retail market between large food retail chains and ACNielsen Ukraine (Kyiv), the Ukrainian division of Nielsen Holdings N.V., will remove infringements and fulfill their liabilities, otherwise they could be more fined up to 10% of their annual goods turnover, acting Head of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine Mykola Barash said at a press conference in Kyiv on Wednesday.

"If the measures were not taken, the situation with the non-fulfillment of the decision appears – the sanction in this case is also 10%, but the issue could be more easily proven," he said, adding that the committee is monitoring the situation on the food retail market now.

Barash said that retailers have shown their readiness for cooperation and this was why they were fined 0.1% of their average turnover for 2014, while the largest fine is 10% of annual goods turnover.

Barash said that some suppliers had sent information that retailers had recently pushed forward additional requirements.

Taking into account information from ACNielsen Ukraine, there is now no exchange of information between retail market players, and the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine expects that retailers will fulfill the liabilities imposed on them and continue to look for a competitive decision, he said.

Barash said that the defenders in the case are 19 retailers, and 16 of them were fined for two infringements, three of them for one infringement, including ACNielsen Ukraine, which was fined UAH 400,000.