FAS and Brazil competition authority are strengthening bilateral cooperation

Andrey Tsyganov: our Brazil colleagues are undertaking all possible efforts to make sure that our joint bilateral as well as multilateral work are most efficient

On 10 May 2017, a FAS delegation to the Annual Conference of the International Competition Network (ICN), led by Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsyganov, held talks with President of Brazil competition authority (CADE), Gilvandro Vasconselos Coelho de Araujo, in Porto (Portugal).

Brazil competition authority is actively preparing to BRICS Competition Conference, which will take place in November 2017. It was emphasized that the event preparation is in accord with the plan. The parties discussed the content of plenary and section sessions at ICN. “We are very glad that institutionalization of cooperation and interaction between the antimonopoly bodies of BRICS economies, started at the Competition Conference in Kazan in 2009, has been very successful, and our Brazil colleagues are putting all possible efforts to make sure that our joint bilateral as well as multilateral work are most efficient”, pointed out Andrey Tsyganov.

As indicated by representatives of Brazil competition authority, a Brazil delegation would participate in the Antimonopoly Track of St Petersburg International Legal Forum.

The Head of FAS delegation shared an idea of establishing BRICS Project Office at “Skoilkovo” Innovative Centre to provide methodological and analytical support to the competition bodies of BRICS economies in joint investigations of violating the antimonopoly law. An important item was discussing an initiative to sign the Joint BRICS Declaration on fair pricing on the market of ocean linear container shipments. “This initiative emerged in the course of an investigation conducted by FAS against several international companies operating on the global market of linear shipments. Since these companies are present in all BRICS companies, signing the Joint Declaration of the antimonopoly bodies of all five BRICS members  enable approximating approaches on price-setting on the market”, stated Andrey Tsyganov.

Then Andrey Tsyganov said that FAS pays special attention to international cartels and unfair practices of large transnational corporations.  This is a common issue for most countries in the world, so FAS has put forward an initiative to draft a Toolkit on international cooperation between competition authorities to counter restrictive business practices of large transnational corporations that can be embedded in the system of international competition acts and will be adopted at UN platform.

Finally, Andrey Tsyganov invited his Brazilian colleagues to take part in an international event - the “Competition week in Russia” on 18-20 September 2017 in Veliky Novgorod.