Andrey Tsarikovskiy: no competition – no economic development

Deputy Head of FAS outlined the directions of the work of Russian antimonopoly body in reference to the current economic processes

“We are entering the digital epoch, new challenges are emerging, market boundaries are fading against many old remaining problems”, saidStats-Secretary, Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsarikovskiy, opening the session on “Antitrust in the Global Economy: Challenges for Regional Alliances”. The event took place on 18 May 2017 at St Petersburg International Legal Forum-2017.

Andrey Tsarikovskiy stated that the main objective of the antimonopoly authority in the field of developing competition and the economy in general is to adopt the National Competition Development Plan for 2017-2019. He mentioned that the idea of devising the National Competition Development Plan is approved by the President of the Russian Federation and the Chairman of the Government. Deputy Head of FAS reminded that federal executive bodies have to adopt clear industry-specific Road Maps to reduce state participation in the respective industries, ensure  state-by-state transition of natural monopolies to the state of competition, decrease administrative market entry barriers and increase the share of small and medium business.

“Road maps in health case, social sphere and financial markets are already drafted by specialized bodies and approved by FAS”, added Andrey Tsarikovskiy.

He also discussed the draft law “On state regulation of prices (tariffs) in Russia”: “Without a normal tariff policy and uniform rules of the game it is impossible to have long-term tariff planning, which enables pursuing investment policy and give financial confidence”.

Deputy Head of FAS added that “Russia inherited post-Soviet, originally cartelized economy, and FAS has learned how to counter then rather efficiently”. For instance, in 2016 FAS exposed over 700 anticompetitive agreements, including cartels. Of which 85% are bid-rigging cartels, in particular, government defence orders, public procurement in the field of state property alienation, harvesting and allocating aquatic and biological resources, capital construction, particularly, construction of highways, provision of medicinal drugs and food products to the population.

He also emphasized a global trend towards disseminating restrictive business practices of large transnational corporations and the importance of jointly countering them with involvement of all antimonopoly jurisdictions.

Andrey Tsarikovskiy reminded that on the first day of Forum representatives of BRICS economies had reached arrangements to establish a Joint BRICS Project Office based in Skolkovo Innovations Centre in Moscow, which will coordinate and provide analytical support to joint investigations of BRICS competition authorities.

“To counter unfair business practices of large transnational corporations, FAS together with UNCTAD have drafted the Toolkit on international cooperation between competition authorities”, pointedAndrey Tsarikovskiy and added that another document for jointly countering violations – the International Anti-Cartel Convention – shall be soon presented at the largest world venues.

Finally Deputy Head of FAS described some unfair practices in Russia and gave examples of the latest high-profile cases, including proceedings against “Google”, “Apple” and “Microsoft”. “The names of these companies confirm the today’s initial thesis that antimonopoly regulation becomes digital and cross-border”, summed up the session results Andrey Tsarikovskiy.