LESYA DAVYDOVA: CROSS-BORDER CARTELS DEMAND A GLOBAL RESPONSE

The first meeting of the UNCTAD Working Group on Cross-Border Cartels created at the initiative of the FAS Russia

Representatives of the UNCTAD Secretariat, Juan Luisa Crucelegui, Head of the Capacity-Building and Advisory Services Division, and Pierre Horna, Legal Officer, delivered welcoming remarks during the event.

The key speaker of the event was Lesya Davydova, Head of the Department for International Economic Cooperation of the FAS Russia. She noted that a lot of work has been done to study the issue of combating cartels by leading international organizations, including ICN and OECD. However, the issue of combating cross-border cartels has not yet been sufficiently investigated and requires special attention of the international competition community.

“Competition Authorities around the world continue to face challenges in suppressing cross-border cartels, which was proved by the results of a study conducted by the BRICS International Competition Law and Policy Centre. In this regard, the work of the Working Group, which has already united different countries, is of particular importance as it will help to study a wide range of issues, summarize best practices and find possible ways to solve and overcome existing issues,” said the representative of the FAS Russia.

Referring to the longer-term plans of the Working Group, the speaker invited its participants to consider such issues as legal and procedural aspects of combating cross-border cartels, tools for combating cross-border cartels and forms of cooperation in conducting investigations, the experience of international organizations and competition agencies in investigating cross-border cartels, the role of regional associations in ensuring cooperation between competition agencies.

The meeting was attended by experts from 45 UN member-states, as well as a number of non-governmental organizations, including the BRICS International Competition Law and Policy Centre, and leading international organizations.

The next meeting of the Working Group is scheduled for April 13.

For reference:

UNCTAD - United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. A body of the UN General Assembly. The conference was established in 1964.

The OECD - Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development is an international economic organization of developed countries that recognize the principles of representative democracy and free market economy.

ICN - International Competition Network. It is an association of antimonopoly authorities of more than 140 countries of the world, focused on improving law enforcement practices, as well as on developing proposals for the convergence of antimonopoly legislation in different countries.