SECOND EDITION OF “ANTIMONOPOLY REGULATION IN THE DIGITAL EPOCH” WAS PRESENTED

Stats-Secretary, Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsarikovskiy said that the decision on the second volume had been made for two reasons: the economic success of the first book and new ideas on regulatory changes

On 20 June 2019, the Federal Antimonopoly Service and the Institute of Law and Development, Higher School of Economics – Skolkovo, presented the second edition of “Antimonopoly Regulation in the digital epoch”. The book authors outlined the challenges of the new time and the book topicality.

The co-authors - Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsarikovskiy; Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department, Andrey Tenishev; researchers from the Institute of Law and Development, Higher School of Economics – Skolkovo,  Alexei Ivanov, Elena Voinikanis and Ekaterina Semenova took part in the event.

Andrey Tsarikovskiy mentioned that the first edition is successful because the authors “had hit the target and had written something truly necessary”.

“The world is changing and it is changing fast. New ideas appear. The present moment, in my view, can be called the dusk of the continental law epoch which already drags behind the changes in the economy”, underlined Deputy Head of FAS. “The law-making cycle is longer than life of many economic phenomena so all that is left to do is to regulate the light of defunct suns”.

According to Deputy Head of FAS, the law needs general, universal wordings and decision-making based on the common concept of justice and precedence. A considerable portion of the book is devoted to this issue.

He also outlined changes in the work of the Antimonopoly Service caused by digital transformations: “A digital – “fifth antimonopoly package”, a draft law on liability for cartels, particularly, pursued with use of new technologies are devised. FAS has fully changes the inspection ideology: when arriving to inspections, software help us know precisely what to look for and where should we search for the evidence of guilt”.

Finally, Andrey Tsarikovskiy expressed hope that the second edition would also be of interests for the readers.

Andrey Tenishev discussed the actual practice of investigating digital violations which is also described in the new book.

He pointed out: “The classical pattern of an anticompetitive collusion – “ramming” – can be carried out using a special software program without direct human involvement, plus it also covers up its own tracks on an electronic trading site”.

Andrey Tenishev explained that a market entry condition for economic entities in the case regarding lock-and-seal devices was the need to use a program that coordinated the market in question.

“Now we need to do a lot: from amending the law to assembling a “digital cat”. At the same time we are not going to reject traditional means of control since the main element of violations is human being”, summed up Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department.

“Antimonopoly Regulation in the digital epoch” II will be available in the electronic and paper forms in bookstores and on specialized online resources.