ALL ECONOMIC ENTITIES ON THE MARKET OF AGROTECHNOLOGIES SHOULD WORK UNDER THE SAME CONDITIONS

Stated Head of FAS Igor Artemiev at a bilateral meeting with representatives of South African Competition Commission

On 17 May 2018, during St Petersburg International Legal Forum, Head of FAS Igor Artemiev had a meeting with Deputy Commissioner ofSouth African Competition Commission, Hardin Ratshisusu, and as an advisor on international affairs, South African Competition Commission, Preshes Mathibo.

First, Head of FAS thanked Hardin Ratshisusu for active involvement of representatives of South African Competition Commission in FAS events. Igor Artemiev emphasized a high degree of cooperation between the agencies in investigating cross-border transactions.

“Your experience has been essential for FAS. South African Commission is a very dynamic organization; you react promptly to enquiries and make decisions. Thank you for the active cooperation enabling to achieve significant results”, pointed out Igor Artemiev.

Head of FAS and Deputy Commissioner ofSouth African Competition Commission discussed specifics of considering “Bayer-Monsanto” merger by the Federal Antimonopoly Service and the details of the issued inunctions.

Igor Artemiev also informed the colleagues from South Africa how the antimonopoly authority studies the agro-industrial markets to find out whether there are other cross-border mergers that can put Russian companies in discriminatory conditions.

“We are studying conduct of other players on the agro-technology market including “DowDuPont” and “Syngenta”. We believe that all economic entities operating on this market must be put in equal conditions so we will recommend to follow the example of “Bayer” and also implement the best practice that we have chosen considering “Bayer - Monsanto” merger”, said Igor Artemiev.

Head of FAS informed Hardin Ratshisusu and Preshes Mathibo about events organized by FAS and invited the colleagues from South African Competition Commission to take part in the next Competition Week in Russia on 24-26 September 2018 in Sochi.

Other FAS representatives included Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsyganov; Head of the Department for International Economic Cooperation, Lesya Davydova; Deputy Head of the Department for International Economic Cooperation, Head of International Information Communications, Anna Pozdnyakova.