IGOR ARTEMIEV: WE ARE MOVING TOWARDS LEGALIZATION OF PROCUREMENT UNIONS

FAS and the Antimonopoly Experts Association will consider possible risks of introducing procurement unions in the legal field

Draft amendments to the law in the part of establishing procurement unions were the key item of a meeting of FAS and the Antimonopoly Experts Association.

Head of FAS Igor Artemiev emphasized that such unions must compete between each other, work in the interests of end consumers and help reduce retail prices.

He said: “We are moving towards legalization of procurement unions and believe that they should first be tested in the food sector. Information about the union members should be in open access and conditions of their performance – unified and maximum transparent to differ from cartels”.

Head of FAS Legal Department Artem Molcahnov clarified that following a dialogue with experts it is expected that he maximum market share of such unions can be 20%, and each union member - 8%.

Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsyganov drew attention to the need to consider creating such unions for the purposes of products export and to maintain the balance of producers’ and sellers’ rights.

“Allowing joint goods procurement does not mean at all their automatic permission. And it is perfectly right that control under Articles 27 and 35 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, because this way we decrease a very important risk – that procurement unions immediately get into conflicts with grain suppliers, sellers maintain the right to be heard under the procedures specified in the antimonopoly law”, informed Andrey Tsyganov.

Igor Artemiev summed up the discussion, suggesting to once again calculate all possible risks of introducing procurement unions to the legal field.

Head of FAS Department for International Economic Cooperation, Lesya Davydova, reported about a collaboration plan for FAS and the Antimonopoly Experts Association, providing to presenting the Russian antimonopoly enforcement practice in foreign trade press.

Denis Gavrilov, a member of the General Council of the Antimonopoly Experts Association outlined the structure of draft explanations on merger standards. The proposals were approved by the meeting.

Head of FAS emphasized the notifications must be filed and considered as e-documents.

Yaroslav Kulik, Partner at ART DE LEX Law Firm, commented on the procedure for applying leniency standards in “multi-event” cases on anticompetitive agreements.

Head of FAS Department for Control over Foreign Investments, Olesya Milchakova made a report on preparing explanations of FAS Presidium about application of some key concepts of the law on investments, concerning  foreign investors’ transactions with regard to Russian strategic companies. The decision was made to continue such kind of work.

Head of FAS also suggested establishing a Working Group on Antimonopoly Enforcement and Judicial Practice.