ANDREY TSARIKOVSKIY: SOME STATE STANDARDS HAVE ALL SIGNS OF CARTELS

Deputy Head of FAS drew attention of Russian Forum of Small and Medium Business to product certification

“State Standards are formed by incumbents and if a new company enters the market that produces a higher quality products, which does not met a particular standard, this company may not be able to take part in procurement when a particular State Standard is specified in documentation”, pointed out Stats-Secretary, Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsarikovskiy during the session on “Ways to solve issues of small and medium industrial enterprises” at Russian Forum of Small and Medium Business on 23 May 2018 as part of St Petersburg International Economic Forum.

He outlined the results of analyzing the current certification system in Russia carried out by FAS. Signs of violating the antimonopoly law were exposed, including cartels, when the State Standards are used to give preferences to particular companies.

“The present certification system creates administrative barriers for industries: there is no possibility to promptly make changes to the State Standards without certain procedures, for example, approving the need for changes with competitors. Amendments can be passed only when consensus is achieved”, said Deputy Head of FAS.

Another issue is that entities subordinate to federal executive bodies not always present confirmation of compliance with the State Standards. There are no methods for determining payment for such services.

“Using State Standards, normative technical regulation may be pinpointed for particular companies, which restricts competition”, pointed out Andrey Tsarikovskiy. “If we do not change the situation cardinally, producing innovative goods is out of question”.

In FAS opinion, the Law “On Protection of Competition” must be added an offence for fixing unreasonable prices for a mandatory certification service and introduce liability for unreasonable refusals to provide such services, and a mandatory method for determining the costs of certification services should be devised and a regulatory act on the certification procedure in Russia should be drafted.

“It will be reported to the Government in the near future”, summed up Deputy Head of FAS.