THE EXPERIENCE OF ANTIMONOPOLY INVESTIGATIONS ON CROSS-BORDER MARKETS
Deputy Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department discussed with the Working Group of the International Competition Network the problems facing the antimonopoly authorities of the world in investigating international cartels and shared positive examples from the practice of the Russian antimonopoly body
Anton Teslenko was a speaker at the section on “Cooperation between antimonopoly authorities and the impact of such cooperation on investigation of international cartels” during the workshop of the Cartel Working Group of the International Competition Network, in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil.
He pointed out that “in the absence of a common regulatory act on interaction between agencies in case investigations and considerations, antimonopoly bodies are unable to synchronize unscheduled on-site inspections, investigate cases and make decisions”.
Anton Teslenko also reminded the workshop participants about a base project on an international anti-cartel convention drafted by FAS, which is disseminated as an official document of the 72nd session of the UN General Assembly executing the decision of the Council of the Heads of CIS Governments, and called upon the workshop participants to join the efforts to further promote the initiative at various international platforms.
“Such documents already exist at the international level; for example, Conventions on counterfeiting, money laundering and tax violations. At the same time, we all understand that the public danger of international cartels is no less and it requires a commensurable response. A most rapid passing of a common framework document that formalizes the regulatory and procedural aspects of interaction between different antimonopoly authorities for the purposes of combating cartels should become one of the priorities of our collaboration towards countering international assaults on competition”, pointed out the speaker.
During the follow-up discussions at the session, its participants also analyzed some examples of cooperation between agencies and NGOs. Anton Teslenko shared FAS experience of collaboration with the “For Fair Procurement” Project of the All-Russian People’s Front, emphasizing the efficiency of such cooperation.
This information generated a vivid interest of the section participants who supported the initiative to consolidate the efforts of the international community to counter cross-border cartels by formalizing common mechanisms and procedures in a multi-sided framework document.