ANDREY TSARIKOVSKIY: ONLY DIGITAL METHODS CAN COUNTER DIGITAL VIOLATIONS

Deputy Head of FAS described the practice of Russian antimonopoly body in the digital economy and recent precedent cases on September at the VI BRICS Competition Conference

Stats-Secretary, Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsarikovskiy talked about digitalization of the economy: “Digitalization concerns the entire world economy rather than particular markets, and cartels were the first to respond to the needs of digitalization, forcing us to search for answers to new challenges”.

In his view, structural changes in the economy are getting increasingly more rapid and have a considerable impact upon all spheres: “Market boundaries are fully fading and the concept of market shares is changing, “technological unpredictability” is increasing”.

Regarding a dial nature of digital economy, Andrey Tsarikovskiy pointed out that “big data being a huge convenience also have become one of the tools to abuse the antimonopoly law”. Such tools, that can also be employed to break the law, include price monitoring systems and auction robots.

As a precedent example of using digital tools, Deputy Head of FAS mentioned a case against the Russian subsidiary of “Samsung” that had coordinated retail prices for its products using a special monitoring program.

He added that “there are a lot of such cases all over the world, when the same retail prices are fixed and someone coordinate them via special programs”.

“Only digital methods can counter digital violations”, statedAndrey Tsarikovskiy. “FAS developed a very complex software suit (the so-called “Big Digital Cat”) that analyses open data and identifies deviations from the norm using a multi-parameter system”.

Finally, Deputy Head of FAS suggested BRICS colleagues to think about simplifying operations and digitalize issuing decisions and fines for antimonopoly violations: “Similarly to the fines for traffic offences, companies will automatically receive information about violations.  They can agree and promptly pay the fines or appeal them at Court. No doubt, the caseload for competition authorities of our countries is so high that transferring simple violations to a program will free our hands to a considerable extent”.