DRAFT LAW ON ANTIMONOPOLY COMPLIANCE HAS PASSED SECOND READING AT THE STATE DUMA

The draft law defines the concept of antimonopoly compliance and specifies the procedure for organizing a system of in-house conformance with the norms of the antimonopoly law and requirements to the documents of economic entities that form antimonopoly compliance

On 18 December, the State Duma of the Russian Federation [the lower chamber of the Parliament] unanimously passed a draft law on adopting the antimonopoly compliance in the second reading. The draft law was initiated by the Federal Antimonopoly Service to execute 2018-2020 National Plan for Developing Competition in Russia.

The draft law provides for economic entities developing a system of in-house conformance with the rules of antimonopoly compliance, which will enable to prevent violations of the antimonopoly law by companies and decrease antimonopoly risks. At the same time, voluntary participation is the main principle of introducing this system of measures.

The draft law also specifies that economic entities may forward their acts on organizing an in-house system of conformity to the norms of the antimonopoly law to FAS. The Antimonopoly Service must give an opinion within 30 days about their conformance or non-conformance to the norms of the antimonopoly law.

“Overall, we expect that adopting the draft law will not only enhance efficiency of antimonopoly regulation but also improve the level of legal culture of the market participants as the latter will build up an in-house mechanism for preventing violations of the antimonopoly law”, pointed out Deputy Head of FAS Sergey Puzyrevsky.