MEDT lifted sanctions against Ukrainian subsidiary of Italian manufacturer

Subject of complaint: Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine (MEDT)
Complaint in brief: On 14 March 2016 the BOC received complaint from TOV “Tecnocap UA”, registered in Lviv Oblast, a part of Italian Group of Companies producing and servicing metal closures and capping machines, regarding sanctions imposed on him by the MEDT.
The sanctions were imposed starting from 2013 due to the Complainant’s inability to collect outstanding payments from its Russian counterparty. In the years 2013 and 2014 Lviv Oblast Commercial Court and Arbitration Court in Moscow ruled in favour of the Complainant in its lawsuits lodged against one of its customers – Russian counterparty, which fell behind with the payments for the purchased goods. However, the enforcement of the court rulings were largely ineffective.
Action taken: In May 2016 the BOC requested a meeting with the Director of the Department for Regulation for the Foreign Economic Activities of the MEDT on the merits of the complaint, which was held on 7 June 2016  with the BOC’s Deputy Business Ombudsman and BOC’s investigator participating. 
During that meeting the representatives of the MEDT reported their readiness to approve lifting of the sanctions after provision of documents evidencing that all measures undertaken to collect outstanding indebtedness were exhausted. 
Result achieved: On 14 July 2016 the Complainant informed the BOC that enforcement procedure against its counterparty in the Russian Federation had been terminated and the sanctions had been suspended until 01 October 2016.
On 18 August 2016 the BOC was informed  that the aforementioned sanction was lifted by the MEDT whereby the BOC’s recommendation had been fulfilled. Thus the problem was successfully resolved.