Kyivstar-Tabletki.ua: a New Approach to Digital Merger Review in Ukraine

Merger review in digital markets is not limited to the effect of a transaction on prices. When digital platforms and data-rich businesses are involved, competition authorities may also consider non-price factors, including access to data and how different services interact within a broader ecosystem.

In 2025, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (“AMC”) closely examined Kyivstar’s acquisition of Tabletki.ua, Ukraine’s leading pharmaceutical aggregator. The transaction proceeded to an in-depth Phase II review and became an important case in the development of the AMC’s approach to digital markets.

Several issues considered in the case are now expressly addressed in the updated Methodology for the Definition of the Product Market and the Monopoly (Dominant) Position, which entered into force on 1 August 2026. These include multi-sided markets, zero-price services and the use of digital metrics. Against this background, the case provides useful guidance on how the AMC may assess future transactions involving digital platforms and significant datasets.

The businesses involved

Kyivstar is Ukraine’s leading telecommunications operator. Its portfolio also includes:

• Helsi, a major digital healthcare platform, used by patients and clinics to book appointments, access health information, and manage electronic prescriptions; and
• Uklon, a leading ride-hailing app and provider of B2B delivery services, expanding into online marketplaces and e-scooter sharing.

Tabletki.ua is Ukraine’s leading pharmaceutical aggregator. It allows users to compare medicine prices and reserve products at participating pharmacies. The platform connects millions of users with thousands of pharmacies and earns revenue primarily from the pharmacy side of the platform rather than from users.

Defining a multi-sided digital market

Tabletki.ua’s business model presented a market-definition challenge. The AMC had to consider whether the platform operated in a single market covering its interaction with both users and pharmacies, or separate markets for each side of the platform. The two sides are closely interdependent. Pharmacies value the platform because it provides access to users, while users value it because a large number of pharmacies participate and offer a broad range of products. These indirect network effects mean that neither side can be assessed properly in isolation. Following this logic, the AMC evaluated both sides as part of an integrated digital ecosystem. This approach is now reflected in the updated Methodology, which recognises the specific features of multi-sided platforms and network effects.

Measuring power in the click economy

The next question was how to measure market performance where users do not pay money for the service.

Traditional tools based on revenue or price increases are difficult to apply in this context. Tabletki.ua provides its main user-facing services free of charge, while revenue is generated on another side of the platform. Revenue alone may therefore provide an incomplete picture of competitive significance.

Recognising that attention is the ultimate currency of the digital age, the AMC considered several alternative metrics: user traffic, the number of participating pharmacies, and the value and volume of reservations. Each had limitations.

User traffic does not distinguish casual window-shopping from completed reservations. The number of participating pharmacies shows the platform’s reach but not the volume of transactions. Reservation data may be more informative, but it is affected by differences between products and by reservations that are subsequently cancelled or not collected.

Despite a clear need for digital-first metrics, the AMC maintained a somewhat conservative approach. It used a hybrid calculation based on the number of reservations and the applicable commission. By multiplying the raw number of reservations by the commission charged, the AMC calculated commission-based revenue.

On that foundation, it established that the parties’ combined share of the market for pharmaceutical price-aggregation services exceeded 35%, the statutory threshold above which dominance may be presumed.

The analysis shows why market shares in digital markets may need to be assessed using several complementary indicators rather than a single revenue-based measure.

While the AMC established a defensible baseline, this calculation proved the regulator was not equipped with the right tools to tackle digital markets.

The invisible hand of data

The AMC’s review was not limited to the possibility of higher commissions. It also considered whether the transaction could strengthen Kyivstar’s position through the interaction of several digital services and datasets within its broader portfolio.

From a user perspective, if you are not paying for the product, you are the product. In the digital economy, value is often extracted from personal data. By acquiring Tabletki.ua, Kyivstar gains access to a vast array of sensitive data. So, your persistent cough, location and phone number become the product.

Consider Kyivstar’s business portfolio. The combination of telecommunications services, the Helsi healthcare platform, Tabletki.ua, and Uklon raised potential concerns relating to access, bundling and data advantages. For example, the merged group could have incentives to favour its own services, restrict access for rivals or link services in a way that makes it more difficult for users or business partners to switch to competing platforms.

From the AMC’s standpoint, by integrating mobile communication services, medical data, medicine sales, and delivery services, Kyivstar could create an “ecosystem lock-in”. Hypothetically, the system could track a user’s journey: doctor logs, medicine history choice, geolocation, and mobile account. So, the true risk lay in creating an asymmetric information advantage by merging different data pools.

The remedies

To secure clearance, the parties offered commitments addressing both access and data use.

The parties undertook to maintain strict data firewalls to prevent the automated merging of Helsi’s sensitive medical records with Tabletki.ua’s pharmaceutical shopping habits. Furthermore, personal data cannot be combined or used for cross-platform analytics without explicit opt-in user consent.

In perhaps the most surprising twist, the regulator went as far as overseeing the design of cookie banners and User Interfaces (UI). The goal was to ensure that the “Choice Architecture” of the applications does not trick users into over-sharing data under the guise of convenience.

Confusion or evolution?

The AMC’s design of the commitments appears closer to the broader EU model for regulating digital platforms and ecosystems under the Digital Markets Act (“DMA”).

The DMA restricts designated gatekeepers from combining or cross-using personal data across different services unless users are presented with a specific choice and give valid consent. The AMC’s focus on data separation, cross-platform use and express opt-in consent follows a similar regulatory logic. Its attention to cookie banners and user-interface design also reflects the wider EU concern that a user’s formal ability to choose may be undermined by the way that choice is presented.

This borrowing is open to criticism. Drawing on DMA concepts may have offered the AMC a practical way to address novel concerns, but using merger commitments to impose DMA-like obligations outside the gatekeeper framework raises legitimate questions of the proper boundary between merger control and digital-platform regulation.

Practical implications for digital transactions

The case and the updated Methodology offer several practical lessons for transactions involving digital platforms.

• Prioritise “privacy by design”. If your growth strategy involves cross-platform integration, stop viewing data privacy as a post-merger compliance checkbox. Treat choice architecture, transparent cookie banners, and user consent as core product quality features from day one.
• Consider the full ecosystem. The AMC may look beyond direct horizontal overlaps and examine links between adjacent services, including potential bundling, preferential access and network effects.
• Do not rely only on revenue shares. User numbers, engagement, reservations, transactions and other non-monetary indicators may be relevant when assessing competitive significance.
• Proactively build data firewalls. When merging distinct consumer-facing assets (such as health tech and telecom), plan your internal technical architecture around data segmentation. Knowing how to cleanly separate sensitive data pools will help with smooth regulatory clearance.

Kyivstar-Tabletki.ua is an important example of how the AMC may approach digital mergers involving multi-sided platforms, zero-price services, data and ecosystem effects. The case also indicates that the AMC may draw on the broader EU digital-regulation framework when designing remedies, rather than relying only on conventional merger-control tools. The updated Methodology gives the underlying competition concepts a clearer formal basis and should make the AMC’s approach more predictable.

For businesses planning digital transactions in Ukraine, the central lesson is straightforward: competition analysis should begin with the structure of the platform, the role of data and the links between services, rather than with revenue and market shares alone.