ELENA ZAEVA: ACCESS TO THE DIGITAL PLATFORM IS AN IMPORTANT CONDITION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF COMPETITION IN DIGITAL MARKETS

At the same time, such access must ensure the efficiency and security of the digital system

New approaches to antimonopoly regulation, taking into account the development of digital markets and the need to preserve freedom of competition, were the key topic of the speech of Elena Zaeva, Head of Department for Regulation of Telecommunications and Information Technology of the FAS Russia, at the Istanbul Competition Forum.

Elena Zaeva spoke about the assessment of the reasonableness of access to the database, conducted during the consideration of the case against the aggregator for job search headhanter.ru. The company was issued an order to stop violating antimonopoly law due to the fact that the platform's user agreements hh.ru contained provisions prohibiting employers who paid for access to the platforms from using third-party software.

Headhanter.ru blocked users (employers) for using third-party software for automated recruitment and offered users to switch to their own software products hh.ru similar functionality.

"Such behavior leads to restriction of competition in the software market for automated recruitment, so the company was issued an order to provide access to the platform for third-party developers," the speaker said.

At the same time, the Antimonopoly authority took into account the need to protect the platform from unauthorized access, as well as the fact that any access must ensure the technical stability and performance of the platform

"The FAS Russia has established that the interaction of market participants using API tools [1] is a good business practice and allows the parties to control the process of obtaining the necessary information from the platform databases, as well as to provide conditions for their proper and safe functioning," explained Elena Zaeva.

In conclusion, she stressed that in the context of the development of digital markets, the balance of freedom of competition and the security of personal data of consumers becomes extremely important.

For reference:

[1] API (application programming interface) -a description of the ways (a set of classes, procedures, functions, structures, or constants) that one computer program can interact with another program