Artem Molchanov: 2016 showed that we have got closer to uniform enforcement of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”

The Antimonopoly Service was able to achieve this relying on the explanations given by FAS Presidium and the in-house appeal procedure

On 2 March, at a workshop with regional antimonopoly bodies, Head of FAS Legal Department Artem Molchanov presented some results of applying the “forth antimonopoly package”. He reminded that for already more than a year FAS has already had in-house appeal of decisions and injunctions issued by regional antimonopoly bodies.

“In 2016 there were 60 complaints on the acts of regional Offices. FAS Presidium reversed or changes the decisions and injunctions of the regional antimonopoly bodies only in 9 cases”, informed Artem Molchanov.

He discussed the most significant cases considered by in-house appeal as well as the established judicial practice.

Another mechanism enabling unified enforcement practices is explanations given by FAS Presidium. In 2016, 7 explanations were approved.

“Last year showed the attitude of the judicial system towards them. We were please that in many rulings Courts stated them as the documents that should serve as guidelines in exercising the functions”, emphasized Artem Molchanov.

FAS representative also said that adopting the explanations changed approaches to determining monopolistically high price.

“Initially FAS determines if there is a compatible market and only if its absence is confirmed, the Antimonopoly Service uses the “costs” method”, added Head of FAS Legal Department.

He drew attention of the Heads of FAS regional bodies to this point to make sure they refer to the relevant explanations issued by FAS Presidium investigating cases on monopolistically high prices.