FAS will take into account OECD experience in selecting market sectors for surveys

At the beginning of March 2017, Head of FAS Department for Methodology of Public Defence Procurement, Pavel Suvorov took part in a workshop on “Selecting and prioritizing economic sectors and industries for market research” organized by OECD Competition Committee in Paris (France).

The programme comprises presentations by representatives of the European Commission, the antimonopoly bodies of the UK, France and Spain, and independent experts.

Vice-President of Compass Lexecon, Miguel de la Mano, put an emphasis on selecting market research tools and the need to plan the work progress in view of the final goals.  In the expert’s opinion, depending on the type of “marker failure” expected by the researcher and the planned remedies, analytical methods may differ, while universal procedures are inefficient.

In his turn, representative of the UK antimonopoly body, Daniel Gordon, pointed out that market research should be a flexible tool, applicable for various situations.

Amelia Fletcher from East Anglia University said that the differences in proposed approaches are determined by the difference in the functionalities performed by the antimonopoly bodies of different countries: in the UK the competition authority, unlike many other counterparts, by law had relatively wide powers for market research and public discussions of the findings, thus, there is a need for a broader range of methods.

Ms. Fletcher specially emphasized the differences between market studies for the purposes of antimonopoly remedies and general analysis of the market trends; when the former prevail, the need for separate methods for the latter is insignificant.

The workshop participants learned about some cumulative positions with regard to market research:

- Under the lack of resources, the selection process most often is reduced to the following questions: “In which segment can the antimonopoly authority have the most impact upon the market in case of violations?” and “Which markets are currently attracting most public attention?

- Quantitative methods of market classification and attempts to identify the priority sectors for analysis on the basis of available statistics can give additional useful information, but should not be considered an independent method of making decisions on selecting sectors for analysis

- Antimonopoly bodies of some countries directly indicate that they do not have particular market selection procedures and decisions are based on previous experience. At the same time the process of planning and “protecting” of a market research project can be detailed

- Antimonopoly bodies typically conduct no more than 1-3 surveys per year (beyond antimonopoly cases), each lasting from several months to a year.

Pavel Suvorov pointed out that the information obtained during the workshop regarding priorities in selecting market research objects, research tools, time frame and frequency “will be useful in the work of specialized FAS units and FAS regional Offices”.

Head of FAS Department for International Economic Cooperation, Lesya Davydova, commented: “Ongoing experience exchange between antimonopoly bodies on the OECD platform makes significant contribution in FAS aspiration to apply the competition law in line with the best world practices. It is the key success of competition authorities under the conditions of globalizing economy and business”.