A draft Toolkit on international cooperation to counter restrictive business practices of transnational corporations is presented at the UN
On 6 July 2017, the 16th session of the International expert Group (IEG) on competition law and policy of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva (Switzerland) included a Round Table on “Strengthening international cooperation in investigating cross-border cases: tools and procedures”. The issue was put on the agenda of IEG UNCTAD upon a FAS initiative in October 2016.
The key speaker at the event was Head of FAS Igor Artemiev. He pointed out that the trends of globalization, digitalization and emergence of new markets will require principally new approaches to cooperation from competition authorities, since violations of the antimonopoly law in the present conditions is often of a global nature. He specially highlighted the work of transnational corporations, which, along with positive practices of solving global issues, developing and disseminating technologies, frequently are violators of the competition law, and whose operations can deepen the technological gap, reduce wellbeing of the population and decelerate the economic growth rates.
“Under the conditions of developing digital markets, violations of the competition law, like information, go viral. And the speed of antimonopoly response must match”, pointed out Igor Artemiev.
Examples were given of successful FAS cooperation with the competition authorities of BRICS, the CIS and EAEU. Currently there are International Working Groups on pharmaceuticals, information-and-communications technologies, global food chains, car manufacturing. These markets are of social importance for all countries of the world and active efforts are undertaken in this format to discuss approaches towards solving common problems.
Igor Artemiev pointed out that the existing tools of cooperation between competition authorities do not suffice to withstand global violations. Lately the world competition community has faced a situation when investigations against particular global companies are initiated all over the world; nevertheless, competition authorities are unable to pursue efficient cooperation. In this context FAS believes that the Toolkit on International Cooperation of Competition Authorities on Combating Restrictive Business Practices of Transnational Corporations and Transboarder Violations of Rules on Competition should be adopted on the UNCTAD global platform. FAS has already drafted the Toolkit, which is available for public discussion.
To refine the Toolkit text, FAS proposes to form a special UNCTAD Group comprising all interested parties. The Toolkit can become an appendix to the F Section (“International measures”) of the United Nations Set of Multilaterally Agreed Equitable Principles and Rules for the Control of Restrictive Business Practices and be adopted at the Conference to review the Set in 2020.
The session speakers included representatives of the competition authorities from France, Peru, Japan, the US and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). During the interactive discussion in the second part of the session, representatives of the competition authorities of Brazil, South Africa, Austria, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Argentina, Mexico, Kirgizia, Armenia, the US and Italy as well as the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) expressed their support to the FAS initiative.