The Head of FAS Igor Artemiev and the Head of Austrian Federal Competition Authority Theodor Tanner signed a Memorandum on Cooperation

On 27 September 2016, in the course of the “Competition Week in Russia”, the Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia), Igor Artemiev signed a Memorandum on Cooperation with the Director General of the Austrian Federal Competition Authority, Theodor Tanner.

“The journey to Europe goes through Austria” said Igor Artemiev, emphasizing a long history of productive cooperation between FAS and the Austrian Federal Competition Authority.

He informed his colleagues about the latest changes in FAS powers and structure as well as the recent amendments to the law of the Russian Federation on antimonopoly regulation.

The Head of FAS discussed establishing Working Groups under the BRICS format, first of all, in the field of food safety and security; and invited Mr. Tanner to be an interpreter of the European antimonopoly standards for BRICS WGs.

Theodor Tanner pointed out that Austria faces the same problems in the pharmaceutical market and the food sector as Russia. The Head of the Austrian Federal Competition Authority also informed the Head of FAS about the latest inspections in the Austrian construction industry. He confirmed: “We exposed a great number of anticompetitive practices”.

In his turn, Igor Artemiev said that FAS is investigating more than1500 cases against companies upon signs of bid-rigging, on abolishing decisions of the authorities to transfer the rights for forest, land and water lots if transferred without competitive bidding.

The Head of FAS Igor Artemiev invited his Austrian colleagues to take part in an international research-to-practice conference in December 2016 in Moscow.