FAS OBJECTIVE IS TO MAINTAIN MARKET BALANCE

FAS is devising the basic principles of market conduct so that all players understand the paradigm, in which market lives and will be developing. Experts discussed the concept of dominant position at the Conference on “Market power, competition and antimonopoly regulation: a 15 year-challenge”

On 27 June 2019, experts discussed the market power factors at a “Pravo.ru” conference in terms of the meaning of dominance, as well as digital markets, collective dominance and new challenges facing the regulator investigating cases on abusing dominance.  

Head of FAS Industry Control Department, Nelli Galinkhanova pointed out that “not many conceptual changes have happened in regulation throughout FAS history, so the question is rather in accents”.

She said that “with the accumulated experience we have a deeper and more detailed insight in the market study aspects related to case investigation. Earlier our conclusions could be compares with an essay, then with a term paper and now they are full-fledged graduation papers”.

Nelli Galinkhanova put an emphasis on new challenges to the competition authority in market studies and the ways to solve them.

“The modern world is constantly changing – goods become heterogeneous, nearly every producer gears to satisfy individual demand, find a niche product, so personified goods and services appear on the market. Under such conditions, it is getting very difficult to evaluate consumer opinion. The hypothetical monopolist test, which, according to the law, we must be guided by in market analysis, does not always work in the modern conditions. And it is a big question that must be contemplated – how to evaluate consumer opinion correctly. Perhaps such controversial issues and challenges must reviews at collective discussions and events”, said the speaker.

Experts discussed structural alternatives to the existing methods of economic analysis of markets.

Answering the question whether economic analysis forms the basis for justice in antimonopoly enforcement, Head of FAS Department for Regulating Communications and Information Technologies, Elena Zaeva explained:

“FAS endeavours to glow and change in line with the markets. New digital offers and platform on the markets fade boundaries; simplify making orders and obtaining goods and services for customers. Such platforms must be considered a new category, which nobody has ever described and which emerged to transform the market, shape it and restructure”.

She added that “toady’s markets are complex; economic analysis is every time different, they cannot fit the same “denominator” So it is very helpful in our work when the parties to a case present economic analyses of markets.  . Typically, there are several of them that add rather than contradict each other. Most often these materials are well-balances and sufficiently objective, using them in their totality we obtain an integral picture”.

Discussing FAS methods in the new conditions, Head of FAS Department for Regulating Communications and Information Technologies stressed:

“Our main tools are shaping a conduct policy and principles. For participants of mature markets, intended for innovative development, it is more convenient to work together in a well-orchestrated manner so that the market grow and develop because everybody depends on each other. We describe the basic principles for a reason so that all market players understand in what paradigm the market lives and will be developing. Maintaining the balance on such markets is our job”, concluded Elena Zaeva.