STATE DUMA PASSED FAS DRAFT LAW THAT EXCLUDES POSSIBILITY TO SUSPEND ORDERS TO AUTHORITIES

On 14 November 2019, the plenary session of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation discussed and supported amendments to the antimonopoly law. For instance, a draft law clarifying execution of FAS orders

The draft Federal Law that falls under fulfillment of the National Competition Development Plan¹ was presented by Deputy Head of FAS Sergey Puzyrevskiy.

He explained that under the Law “On Protection of Competition” when FAS ordered are appealed and Arbitration Courts take over the case, its execution is suspended until the ruling of the Arbitration Court comes into effect. The amendments introduce an exception from the rule, abolishing it with regard to orders issued by the antimonopoly body to the authorities and local self-government bodies.

“The provision on excluding a common rule on suspending orders of the antimonopoly body when appeals are lodged is also designed to at least halve antimonopoly violations by the authorities and local self-government bodies by 2020 in comparison with 2017 which is one of the key targets of 2018-2020 National Competition Development Plan”, commented Sergey Puzyrevskiy.

In the past year, the antimonopoly bodies issued 568 orders to the authorities and local self-government bodies, of which 212 orders were appealed at Court (4 orders were invalidated by Courts).

According to Deputy Head of FAS, during the period of suspending order competition on the relevant goods markets is restricted (on average for 1 year).

Reference:

¹ Draft Federal Law “On amendments to the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” is prepared by FAS to fulfill Sub-Clause “a” Clause 2 of 2018 - 2020 of the National Plan for Competition Developmentin the Russian Federation, approved by № 618 Order of the President of the Russian Federation of 21 December 2017.