Sergey Puzyrevskiy: competition advocacy in 2016 will focus on developing the violation preventing system

On 30 June 2016, Deputy Head of FAS, Sergey Puzyrevskiy discussed with the Legal Committee of the Association of Managers the efforts undertaken by FAS to formalize the institution of antimonopoly compliance in the law of the Russian Federation.

He stated that the Strategy for Developing Competition and the Antimonopoly Law provides for a set of measures on compliance advocacy. A draft law, prepared by FAS, formulates positive legal consequences for the companies employing this institution in their work. In the near future the draft law will be accessible for public discussions on regulation.gov.ru.

Sergey Puzyrevskiy outlined the advantages of implementing compliance: avoiding reputational harm, preventing violations at an early stage and mitigating administrative liability.

“In general such trends should motivate companies to undertake measures to observe the antimonopoly law and avoid violations”, stated Sergey Puzyrevskiy.

The current antimonopoly law already has some rudiments of antimonopoly compliance. For instance, under Article 14.32 of the Code of the Russian Federation a person participating in a cartel agreement and reported about the anticompetitive agreement is relieved from liability.