FAS IS ACTIVELY DEVELOPING A SYSTEM FOR EXPOSING AND SUPPRESSING BID-RIGGING CARTELS
Deputy Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department Dmitry Artyushenko reported to ICAP
The Interstate Council on Antimonopoly Policy met for its 48th session on 30 May 2018 in Minsk (Belarus). Deputy Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department discussed developing the anti-cartel law and creating a system to expose and suppress bid-rigging cartels in Russia.
In November 2017 Head of CIS Governments made a joint Statement on consolidating efforts of the world community to efficiently counter international cartels and supported drafting an international document against cartels. Dmitry Artyushenko stated that the next step will be initiating a UN international act against cartels.
The speaker informed that, according to FAS, the most cartelized sectors of the economy are health care and construction – 17.8% and 17.5% of exposed violations accordingly.
Under 2018 – 2020 National Plan for Developing Competition in Russia, the efforts to expose and suppress anticompetitive agreements will be intensified. It includes more robust work of the law enforcement bodies to expose and counter cartels and international cooperation aimed at suppressing cross-border cartels and decartelization of the construction sector.
“Preventing cartels in accord with 2030 Economic Security Strategy of the Russian Federation is one of the strategic planning tasks in the economic field”, emphasized Dmitry Artyushenko.
“To execute the orders of RF President, the Federal Antimonopoly Service has drafted a package of laws tightening criminal liability for bid-rigging, increasing the period of limitation for the cases in anticompetitive agreements, imposing turnover fines for hampering FAS inspections”, added the speaker.
Dmitry Artyushenko highlighted conduct and economic evidence of anticompetitive bid-rigging agreements, used by FAS officers, and automatization of the processes of investigating bid-rigging cartels.
“Signs of cartels can be ascertained remotely and without enquiries – by analyzing information about e-tenders in the unified information system. FAS endeavors to obtain remote access to the data on e-trading sites”, concluded Deputy Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department.