The first session of the Commission on Competition and Antimonopoly Law of the “Association of Russian Lawyers”

The first session of the Commission on Competition and Antimonopoly Law of the “Association of Russian Lawyers” All-Russian NGOdiscussed the legislative initiatives on introducing the institution of compliance. The venue was at Kutafin Moscow State Law Academy.

The draft Law “On changes to the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” and the Code of the Russian Federation “On Administrative Violations”” devised by FAS provides for the measures stimulating companies to prevent and exclude violations of the antimonopoly law.

The Commission experts are interested in and supported the draft law. However, they propose to go beyond the antimonopoly field and consider a broader problem, covering other areas of economic activity.

The Commission also considered a draft report on the state of competition in the Russian Federation in 2015. The Antimonopoly Service analyzed around 11 sectoral markets and put forward proposals on developing competition in these areas. Russian NGOs also were involved in drafting the report. Together FAS elaborated some solutions for improving the situation on the markets in question. The Head of FAS Igor Artemiev will present the report to the Government of the Russian Federation at the end of August.

At the first session the Commission approved its membership and the Action Plan for the second half of 2016. The next scheduled meeting will be in September 2016.

The Commission on Competition and Antimonopoly Law of the “Association of Russian Lawyers” All-Russian NGOwas formed on 3 February 2016 upon an initiative of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia). The Commission objective is to look into the issues of improving the antimonopoly law and the law regulating natural monopolies and the law on public and municipal procurement.

Deputy Head of FAS Sergey Puzyrevskiy: “The work of the Commission will make sure that only the most effective legal solutions are pursued. We expect that the Commission will be able to cut off wrong legal constructs so it would not lead the system of antimonopoly regulation up a blind valley”.