“ANTIMONOPOLY COMPLIANCE HAS BECOME OUR REALITY”

FAS representatives and experts discussed trends on development of antimonopoly compliance in Russia

“What do economic entities and the authorities get from implementing antimonopoly compliance?”, - Head of FAS Legal Department Artem Molchanov set the theme line moderating the All-Russian Inter-Sectoral Research-to-Practice Conference: “Antimonopoly Compliance – an Efficient Tool for Violations Prevention”.

“We heard different answers during public discussions. In most cases they concerned economic sense, which implied relief from liability or fine reduction”, continued Artem Molchanov.

Then he turned it over to Deputy Head of FAS Sergey Puzyrevskiy.

He said: “Shaping legal culture of compliance with the antimonopoly law is a necessary basis for improving the situation in the economy with developed competition, where economic entities act fair, and do not breach the Law “On Protection of Competition”.

In his view, companies that are in the risk zone due to their dominant position or an anticompetitive agreement force their top executives to think how to prevent antimonopoly violations.

“We see that many companies, even without legal regulation of antimonopoly compliance, start implementing corporate antimonopoly compliance understanding that it brings benefits”, mentioned Sergey Puzyrevskiy. “What does antimonopoly compliance give? It enables companies to prevent risks of violating the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

“Today the leading companies constantly generate ne knowledge, competitive advantages, the ultimate goal is to expand their market share, increase market power. Globalization and consolidation are a global trend typical for many markets. Entering the digitalization epoch, global companies such as “Ab InBev Efes”, “Philip Morris”, and others thoughtfully implement the systems of tracing and preventing the risks of violating the antimonopoly law”, emphasized Head of FAS Fiscal Control Department Vladimir Mishelovin.

Deputy Head of FAS added: “FAS has already drafted amendments on formalizing antimonopoly compliance legislatively, it is being discussed at different platforms. International practice shows that foreign countries approach the issue rather seriously. The UK, Germany, France and Kazakhstan have already solved the issues of antimonopoly compliance at the legislative level”.

“Under the Order of the President of the Russians Federation on official directions for developing competition, the draft law must be submitted to the State Duma by 1 January 2019. We expect that adopting the new law will become an additional incentive for developing the institution of antimonopoly compliance”, pointed out Sergey Puzyrevskiy.