Andrey Tsyganov: FAS work will become even more understandable and transparent

It will be facilitated through preventative control, introduction of corporate antimonopoly compliance, and risk-based approach to control and supervision

Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsyganov took part in the Legal Forum of Vedomosti” newspaper – the Plenary session on “Counsel dialogue with the authorities and business” and the session on “Antimonopoly regulation”.

At the Plenary session he discussed the trends in the work of Russian antimonopoly body: “Through preventative control, in 2016 the number of opened cases dropped twofold. Out efforts are now two-staged: when there are signs of a violation, FAS issues a warning, and a case is opened only upon a failure to execute it. In 2016 more than 75% of the warnings were executed within the designated period”.

Deputy Head of FAS pointed out at the increased number of antimonopoly cases in the filed of information technologies and added that the market of legal services is also changing under the impact of modern technologies.

At the session on “Antimonopoly regulation”, Andrey Tsyganov talked to counsels and business representatives about corporate compliance, discussed with the session participants their expectations and possible consequences of introducing compliance.

He emphasized: “Compliance in general is a business process that enables reducing the risk of violating the law”.

Discussing the draft Law “On making changes to the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” and  the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Violations, prepared by FAS, Deputy Head of the antimonopoly authority said: “The standards in the draft Law are put in a general form and should not cause any questions from those implementing compliance. No changing the in-house control procedures and introducing new elements are required. Compliance brings clear rules of the game; it is a preventative measure for violations and imposing a fine upon a company that has a compliance system FAS will be able to use this fact to mitigate the punishment for 1/8 of the penalty amount. This is a significant incentive for implementing compliance”.

Andrey Tsyganov informed about FAS introducing a risk-based approach, devised under the frame of the reform of control and supervision activities: “There are average, high or low risks of violating the law enforced by FAS. For instance, average risks: these are violations by the holders of natural monopolies with their annual revenue exceeding 10 billion RUB. This group comprises around 2000 regulated entities, regarding which scheduled inspections will take place every three years. Violations by national monopolies with less than 10 billion RUB income or those that are not holders of natural monopolies fall under the moderate-risk group, and scheduled inspections are conducted no often thane once in five years. There are about 6000 such entities in Russia. The planned inspections are intended for the remaining 8 million economic entities”.