Vladimir Kachalin: international cartels overprice higher than national cartels

At the events of the Cartel Working Group of the International Competition Network (ICN) on 3-5 October 2016 in Madrid, Vladimir Kachalin, an advisor to the Head of FAS said that cartel prices exceed the competitive level by two and more times.

OECD estimates that on average cartels overprice at around 14%, while a research team of professor J. Connor believes it can reach 49%. Vladimir Kachalin emphasized that “there is a common opinion among researchers of cartel issues that prices fixed by international cartels exceed a similar indicator for the cartels operating on the national level”.

“Our knowledge as to what is happening inside cartels is limited, and the antimonopoly bodies face an issue whether the current tools are sufficient, for instance, leniency programme, programmes for stimulating and legal protection of the persons giving information about cartels to expose, prove and suppress cartel activities”, stated an advisor to the Head of FAS.

The representative of Russian antimonopoly body pointed out the need to actively expand participation of various civil society groups in countering cartels. It concerns, in particular, legal and academic communities as well as industry and consumer associations.  Vladimir Kachalin said that private actions can play a big role here, first of all, in compensating damages inflicted by cartels on their intermediary and end consumers.