Andrey Tenishev: “Cartelization of the economy is one of the modern criminal challenges”

Cartels threaten the national economy and security of Russia, undermine the basis of the market economy and are conducive to social tension in the society.

Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department, Andrey Tenishev was a speaker at the Conference on “Criminal policy: yesterday, today, tomorrow” at the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences (1).

He emphasized that the Antimonopoly Service undertakes robust and systemic efforts on exposing and suppressing cartels.

“Today the scale of cartels is such that to restrain cartelization of the economy it is important to be aware of the public danger of such actions and apply serious criminal liability for cartel participants and organizers”, added Andrey Tenischev. “In some jurisdictions cartels falls under embezzlement. In view of the victim, it does not matter how one was deprived of financial assets: a purse was stolen or unfair cartel participants cheated and forced the victim to pay extra. In case of pick-pocketing, however, only one person suffers, while cartel victims often are the entire population of the country”.

After rejecting the planned economy it was expected that market will be able to form prices independently, based on demand-supply, but in practice everything happened differently. In the everyday economic life price cartels of producers and buyers have already become nearly a norm.

Finally, FAS representative pointed out that every year the antimonopoly body registers and exposes for up to 600 anticompetitive agreements at tenders and holds nearly 1500 economic entities administratively liable.

Reference:

1. Attendees at the Conference on “Criminal policy: yesterday, today, tomorrow” included the leading Russian and foreign specialists in criminology, criminal law and criminal process. Speakers discussed cartel operations since they inflict significant harm to the budget of the state and companies with state participation, stimulate corruption, and undermine the basis of the market economy in Russia.