Interaction between retail chains and goods producers under the framework of the new edition of the Law on Trade was discussed in Kazan

Interaction between retail chains and suppliers under the framework of the new version of the Law on Trade was discussed at the international research-to-practice conference on “Ensuring Competition in Trade Activities” that took place in in Kazan at FAS Centre for Education and Methodics.

Representatives of federal and regional retail chains, suppliers, agricultural producers, academic community, economists and lawyers participated in the event organized by the Federal Antimonopoly Service, FAS Centre for Education and Methodics and Tatarstan OFAS.

The guests were welcomed by the Prime-Minister of the Republic of Tatarstan, Ildar Khalikov. He pointed out that for the regions trading operation is not only a system of satisfying the needs of their residents but also a possibility to sell the products of local agricultural producers and processors, and therefore, a constructive dialogue should be established between them and retail chains in this filed.

In his turn, Deputy Head of FAS, Andrey Kashevarov, said in his welcoming address that the Federal Antimonopoly Service intends to constantly monitor operations of retail chains and its suppliers in terms of observing the new norms of the law. “We asked the Government to entrust us to conduct daily monitoring as we did after adopting the Law on Trade in 2010. The practice of such monitoring confirmed its efficiency since building up relationship between chains and suppliers happened a bit quicker that it could take place just under contractual relations between parties”, emphasized Andrey Kashevarov.

The Head of FAS Department for Control over Social Sphere and Trade Timophey Nizhegorodtsev discussed the new edition of the Law on Trade in detail.

The Minister of Industry and Trade of the Republic of Tatarstan, Albert Karimov, made a report on the pressing issues of developing retail trade in the Republic. He pointed out that the efforts on intensifying competition on the consumer market are inseparably related with developing a multi-format trading sector. The efforts undertaken by the state and municipal bodies in Tatarstan in this area, focus on supporting local producers in improving the image of their high-quality products and stimulating the demand of the population for those products.

Deputy Director of Kirgizia State Agency for Antimonopoly Regulation, Kineshbai Tailakov, shared experience of regulating trading activities in the Republic of Kirgizia. According to the Regulations on protecting and developing competition in trading activities, adopted in Kirgizia, retail chains and companies supplying food products cannot create discriminatory conditions, prevent market entry or exit for other companies, impose disadvantageous conditions upon counteragents, etc.

The results of monitoring execution of the requirements to observe the norms of the federal law in trading activities in Tatarstan were shared by the Group Head, the Chairman of the Committee on Environment, Natural Resources Management, Agro-Industrial and Food Policy of the Republic of Tatarstan, Takhir Khadeev.  As illustrated by monitoring, in spite of a considerable interest of the population to locally-made products, their range in retail chains is inadequate.

Dmitry Vostrikov, Director on Development, the Association of Producers and Suppliers of Food Products, discussed supplier risks under the framework of the new edition of the Law on Trade; while Denis Gavrilov, Deputy Head of Competition Law Department, highlighted the prospects of antimonopoly control in trading operations in view of current legislative novelties.

The Conference that focuses on competition issues in retail trade was organized in Kazan for already the third time.