Retail networks in Ukraine: development trends and problems of dominance

The article shows that in recent decades the process of concentration has been active in the retail trade of Ukraine, as a result of which trade networks have taken the leading role. It is found that, unlike individual shops, they have considerable market power and use it to redistribute in their favor part of the value added created in other sectors of the economy. Therefore, the purpose of the article is to substantiate measures of state regulation of relations between domestic retail networks and suppliers based on the analysis of trends in the development of retail networks in Ukraine and the experience of EU countries. It was found that networks actively use unfair trade practices: unjustified delays in payments for delivered goods, shifting commercial risks to suppliers, imposing services that do not add value to suppliers, etc. The experience of regulating the activity of retail networks in EU has been studied. Particular attention is paid to the essence of EU Directive 2019/633 "On unfair trade practices in business-to-business relationships in the agricultural and food supply chain". The development of network trade in Ukraine is analyzed; it was found that the scale of abuse of domestic retail networks is much greater compared to other European countries. This has an extremely negative effect on the competitiveness of Ukrainian enterprises, leads to an increase in prices and a decrease in the income of the population. The need to introduce tools for state regulation of the activity of retail networks is substantiated. To this end, it is proposed to adopt the draft law "On protection against unfair trade practices in relations between economic entities in the field of supply of agricultural and food products", submitted to the Verkhovna Rada on September 29, 2021. Since this project has certain shortcomings, changes and additions to it are proposed. It is shown that the recovery of the economy after the war will be significantly accelerated if it is possible to balance the interests of retail networks and domestic producers by eliminating anti-competitive agreements and discriminatory practices