WORKSHOP WITH THE LAW ENFORCEMENT BODIES IN PSKOV ON COUNTERING ANTICOMPETITIVE AGREEMENTS

The work on executing the orders issued by the President of the Russian Federation to coordinate efforts on exposing and suppressing cartels by the antimonopoly and the law enforcement bodies continues

On 16 August 2019, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Pskov region hosted a closed workshop for the staff of the law enforcement bodies on “Practice of collaboration between the antimonopoly and the law enforcement bodies to combat anticompetitive agreements”.

To train staff of the law enforcement bodies, Deputy Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department, Anton Teslenko, and Deputy Unit Head, Anti-Cartel Department, Dmitry Vasiliev, arrived to Pskov.

Head of Pskov OFAS, Olga Milonaets; representatives of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Pskov region; the Investigation Department of the Investigation Committee of the Pskov region, the Economic Security and Anti-Corruption Office of the Department of the Ministry of Interior in the Pskov region, and the Department of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation in the Pskov region, as well as specialists of Pskov and Novgorod OFAS took part in the workshop.

Head of Pskov OFAS, Olga Milonaets opened the workshop and welcomed its participants. She emphasized the importance of interaction between the law enforcement bodies and the regulators countering cartels, the need to elaborate algorithms of interactions between the participants of the workshop on exposing cartels in the Pskov region.

Speaking in front of representatives of regional law enforcement bodies, Dmitry Vasiliev highlighted some qualification issues in cases on anticompetitive agreements, the criteria for allowing agreements, and administrative liability.

Continuing the theme of liability for anticompetitive agreements, Anton Teslenko went into details of some controversial aspects of the state criminal policy in the field of competition protection, liability for representatives of economic entities and officials of the authorities, as well as highlighted the practices of collaboration between the antimonopoly and the law enforcement bodies towards decartelizing Russian economy. The speaker also described an inter-departmental program, approved by the Government of the Russian Federation, on exposing and suppressing cartels and other competition-restricting agreements for 2019 – 2023, pointed out the need to consolidate efforts and resources of the authorities to defend the national interests of the Russian Federation and creating common practice of preventing collusions and anticompetitive agreements.

This information generated a vivid interest among the listeners and understanding the complexity of FAS efforts to counter prohibited agreements and concerted actions.