HEAD OF THE FAS MAXIM SHASKOLSKY ADRESSED THE FEDERATION COUNCIL

During the “government hour”, Head of the Authority told about activity of the Service over the past year and plans for the future

The Head of the Service noted the high level of business activity in the country. In 2023, the FAS reviewed 1, 283 transactions of economic concentration. We are talking about the purchase of large companies with revenues of over 10 billion rubles or with actives of more than 7 billion rubles.

One of the main areas of the Service's work is control over legislation on the contract system. In 2023, the FAS received more than 58 thousand complaints about procurement procedures. The fines of 2.1 billion rubles have been paid in cases of procurement anticompetitive agreements that have been already considered. Investigative authorities based on the materials of the FAS initiated 39 criminal cases. The leaders of identified violations are still the markets of road complex, construction, pharmaceuticals, housing and communal services, and social catering.

The Service pays special attention to the control of pricing in socially significant commodity markets. In 2023 and the expired period of 2024, 19 cases were initiated in the wholesale markets of sugar, dairy products, and chicken meat. 25 warnings and precautions were issued in connection with public statements about price increases for certain goods.

Soft regulation tools are proving their effectiveness. The Government of the Russian Federation adopted Resolution No. 662 developed by the FAS – this document allows regions to conclude agreements with business entities on driving down prices and voluntary commitments to limit trade margins on socially important food products. Currently, agreements are in force in 34 regions, and over 2, 200 manufacturers and sellers have assumed price obligations.

An effective mechanism was created to provide Russian agricultural producers with mineral fertilizers at affordable prices, on the level of 2022 year. The FAS coordinated trade and marketing policies of fertilizer producers and ensured control over their compliance. In addition, the Service is working on ensuring equal access of agricultural producers to subsidies from the budget. In 2023, 417 regulatory legal acts were analyzed by the regions that regulate the provision of subsidies. The Authorities of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation issued 8 warnings, which were complied.

In the automobile fuel market, the FAS is taking measures in the wholesale and in retail segments. On behalf of the Government of the Russian Federation, the Service checks the economic viability of prices, in case of unjustified price increases, antimonopoly response measures are taken. At the moment, under results of inspections, 30 antimonopoly cases have been initiated in 19 regions of the country.

In the mobile communication market in 2023, the FAS issued warnings to the “big four” mobile operators about the cancellation of fees for sharing Internet traffic from subscriber mobile devices. In response to the warning, mobile operators canceled the fee.

For medicines from the list of vital and essential, the Authority conducts a comparative analysis of registered prices with prices in the reference countries. If it turns out that Russian prices are higher, manufacturers are notified of the need to reduce them. As a result, in 2023, 252 registered drug prices were reduced by an average of 14%.

In the context of development digital economy, issues of protecting the interests of consumers and businesses from abuse by “digital monopolies” are becoming essential. The Service carries out preventive work with the largest Russian aggregators and marketplaces, thanks to which it was possible to achieve the abolition of number negative practices by the companies. At the same time, the work is continued to remove antimonopoly legislation from the moratorium on inspections of IT companies. In the near future, the FAS expects to take advantage of the tools for protecting consumers and small businesses, which are provided by the “fifth antimonopoly package”, which was adopted last year.

To ensure consumer demand and keep prices down, the Russian Government has implemented a parallel import regime. This mechanism ensured the availability of familiar goods at affordable prices and led to additional development of entrepreneurship and competition. In addition, it encourages domestic manufacturers to work on product quality, innovation, modernization and reduction of operating costs.

Mechanisms for monitoring the economic validity of tariffs are constantly being improved. In 2023, the FAS conducted 14 inspections, which affected on 93 regulated organizations. The total amount of economically unjustified funds excluded from tariffs amounted to 23, 1 billion rubles. In addition, in 2023 the Service initiated the adoption of Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation on granting the FAS regional offices to conduct inspections. To date, inspections have already been carried out in 82 regions of Russia.

One of the directions of legislative work is unification of industry trades, due to the fact that they are regulated by more than 50 regulations. The introduction of a unified procedure for conducting property auctions in electronic form will simplify the procedure for providing property, reduce number of violations, and increase level of competition at auctions.