Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) – On 23 July 2024, the Tashkent Inter-District Administrative Court rejected the appeal filed by Navoi Azot against the decision of the Competition Development and Consumer Protection Committee of Uzbekistan.

In June 2024, the Competition Committee initiated a case against Navoi Azot for violating antimonopoly legislation. The Committee found that the company engaged in price manipulation of high-demand and monopolistic products on the exchange. The volumes of goods available for sale were artificially reduced, resulting in price increases of 10−50%.

Specifically, Navoi Azot did not offer the entire volume of produced urea, ammonium sulfate, and superphosphate for sale. The company holds a dominant position in these market segments. The Committee also found that Navoi Azot manipulated prices of polyvinyl chloride and formalin, which are also sold through the exchange.

From 2021 to 2023, Navoi Azot auctioned only 57.2 thousand tons of the mentioned products. Due to inflated prices, the company’s unjustified profit amounted to 20.5 billion soums.

Following the investigation, the Competition Committee initiated proceedings against Navoi Azot, issued an order to rectify the violations, and to prevent their recurrence in the future.

Navoi Azot filed an appeal against this decision with the Tashkent Inter-District Administrative Court, seeking to have it declared invalid. However, the court dismissed the company’s appeal, upholding the Committee’s decision.