ANDREY TSYGANOV: ANALYSING MERGERS, FAS TAKES INTO ACCOUNT POSSIBLE POSITITVE CONSEQUENCES

On 27 October 2019, an International Conference – “Antimonopoly Regulation in Russia” discussed new approaches to merger analyses, the latest trends in structural and conduct conditions for M&A approvals, an impact of industrial policy upon the outcome of merger consideration, etc.

In the opinion of Deputy Head ofthe Federal Antimonopoly Service Andrey Tsyganov, rethinking antimonopoly regulation approaches is one of the key current foci for Russia as well as European countries.

Attention to the balance of industrial and competition policies takes turns to fade and then again be in the centre of vivid discussions. “Competition policy is just an element of the government policy; the state has other tasks and objectives. And FAS also takes this into consideration in merger analysis”, underlined Andrey Tsyganov.

Head of FAS Industry Control Department Nelli Galimkhanova pointed out that recently FAS has been applying Article 13 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” increasingly more often. “Analyzing mergers, we must look into industrial policy, consider how a merger can influence efficiency of the Russian economy, and what positive or adverse effects for the economy of Russia it can generate”, explained Nelli Galimkhanova.

Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsyganov stated that nowadays competition is impossible without the digital and information. The antimonopoly regulators must prevent market monopolization by global champions who possess big data.

Another challenge to the antimonopoly body analyzing mergers is definition of market boundaries. It should be kept in mind that even in global mergers such as Bayer-Monsanto”, local markets in each countries are specific. Therefore, decisions and orders of the antimonopoly bodies in different countries can differ.

Head of Austria Competition Authority, Theodor Tanner; François-Charles Laprévote and Antoine Winckler, Partners at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP; Nikolai Voznesensky, Partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (Russia) LLP; Irina Akinova, Head of antitrust division, BGP Litigation; Elena Sokolovskaya, Partner, Head of antimonopoly practice at “Peplyaev Group; Evgeny Yuriev, a counsel at Herbert Smith Freehills Law Firm; Andrey Rego, Director of “MTS” Department for Regulatory Risks Management, Chairman of the General Council of the Antimonopoly Experts Association and other experts attended the session.

The session was moderated by Kirill Bondarenko, a counsel from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP.