Charged a smartphone – fined: when they could be accused of selling electricity from a generator

At the end of November, an entrepreneur from Odessa was fined 34,000 UAH. He was accused of selling electricity without a license. But lawyers do not agree that in the case of the indicated entrepreneur, who for a modest fee allowed him to work and use sockets in the workplace, we are really talking about a crime under Article 164 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. writes about it Focus “Electricity for 50 hryvnia. Can entrepreneurs get access to sockets for money?”

When it comes to the sale of electricity, lawyers recommend relying on legislation on licensing types of economic activity. The mere fact of generating electricity with an unlicensed generator does not mean it is against the law.

According to Vladislav Firsov, lawyer of JSC “AS Legal”, paragraph 5 of part 1 of article 7 of the Law of Ukraine “On types of licensing of economic activity” explains that activities in the field of electric power industry are subject to licensing. Licensed taking into account the issues determined by the Law of Ukraine “On the Electricity Market” and activities in the field of the use of nuclear energy licensed in accordance with the Law of Ukraine. use of nuclear energy”.

“Only economic activities directly defined by a special law are subject to licensing. 30. License Conditions of the Law “On the Electricity Market” of Ukraine. Unlicensed electricity generation is allowed if the capacity of the power generation equipment is less than 5 MW (megawatts). Given that the power of conventional generators is measured in kilowatts (kW), the generation of electricity with such equipment is allowed without a license.“, — said Vladislav Firsov.

He also emphasized that the protocol prepared by the police does not mean that the businessman is obliged to pay the fine yet. As a result, the case materials will be transferred to the court, which will determine whether there has been an administrative violation.

“The local court in the place where the protocol was drawn up will consider the case as an administrative offense and will decide to bring the entrepreneur to administrative responsibility. In our opinion, considering the case in court on an alleged administrative offense, the entrepreneur will have a fairly strong legal position that it is not necessary to obtain a license to carry out economic activities for the generation of electric power. and, as a result, the absence of an administrative offense in accordance with Art. 164 of the Code of Administrative Offenses,” explained Alexander Rudenko, a lawyer at the Ilyashev & Partners Law Firm.

Vladislav Firsov says that the court probably found the entrepreneur not guilty of committing an administrative offense. However, there may be an option where the court will issue a verbal warning to the person charged with the crime. “In any case, the outcome of the case will depend on how professionally the defense lawyers handle the case and how deeply the court examines all the circumstances,” Vladislav Firsov said.

Important

Previously Focus He wrote that residents of apartments in different cities of Ukraine are actively discussing the issue of buying and installing generators, and some even began to raise money for them.

As reported, the demand for gasoline and diesel increased in Ukraine due to the heavy use of generators.