FRAMEWORK ON COMPETITION AGENCY PROCEDURES

FAS is one of the first bodies that joined it

The Framework was presented at the plenary session of the Annual Conference of the International Competition Network (ICN) in Cartagena (Columbia) on 15 May 2019. Speaking at the plenary session, Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsyganov said: “It is very important for FAS to be a co-founder of the Framework document on Competition Agency Procedures (CAP). It will enable it members to exchange opinions and experiences regarding antimonopoly investigation procedures and elaborate common understanding of the main issues and challenges of adopting competition agency processes to the new economic conditions and outline the avenues to resolve them. It will help further relate and harmonize approaches to competition concerns shared by the entire competition community”.

As Andrey Tsyganov pointed out, for 30 years the principles of openness and transparency have been the backbone of developing Russian antimonopoly law and policy. It is especially true for establishing and observing fair procedures for investigations and consideration of antimonopoly cases.

Deputy Head of FAS informed that in Russia the procedures are formalized directly in the text body of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” rather than in by-laws as is practices currently in many countries. Approximately one third of the text of Russian competition act is devoted to procedural aspects, which confirms extraordinary importance of open and transparent procedures for Russian antimonopoly body.

FAS also pays considerable attention to interaction with the business community and experts in antimonopoly policy and law in order to make procedures clear and understandable. Adopting amendments to Russian antimonopoly law, FAS expands the tools for collaboration with the expert community.

Andrey Tsyganov underlined the importance of FAS Expert Councils in forming and pursuing competition policy and increasing awareness by market participants. FAS Expert Councils comprise representatives of the authorities and market players. In the past several years, FAS issued 18 official explanations of competition law that also make significant contribution in increasing transparency of the antimonopoly procedures.

The session was moderated by professor William Kovacic, Georgetown University, the US; other speakers included President of German Federal Cartel Office, Andreas Mundt; Assistant Attorney General, US Department of Justice, Makan Delrahim; Head of South African Competition Commission, Tembinkosi Bonakele;  a Commissioner Reiko Aoki of Japan Fair Trade Commission; Head of Mexico Competition Commission, Alejandra Palacios Prieto; and Director General of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition, Johannes Laitenberger.