PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA SIGNED THE LAW ON ANTIMONOPOLY COMPLIANCE

 The Law “On Protection of Competition” will include a concept of “a system of in-house conformity to the norms of the antimonopoly law”.

On 1 March, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin signed the Federal Law “On antimonopoly compliance”, the purpose of which is to help companies reduce antimonopoly risks and prevent violations of the law.

A concept of “a system of in-house conformity to the norms of the antimonopoly law” is introduced to the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”. The concept is designed to explain companies, which in-house acts must be passed to control observance of the antimonopoly norms.

At the same time, the main principle of implementing this system of measures is voluntariness.

To verify whether documents comply with the law, companies can also forward them to FAS. The Antimonopoly Service will take into account implementation of an antimonopoly compliance system when classifying enterprises under a particular category, applying the risk-oriented approach to control compliance with the law. FAS shall answer within 30 days.

The new law not only brings the necessary clarity to other legal norms but also helps reduce the risk of cartel formation, saves companies from fines and their top-executives – from possible liability.

On 20 February, the plenary session of the State Duma of the Russian Federation unanimously passed a draft law on introducing antimonopoly compliance in the third reading.

The Federation Council approved the draft law on 26 February.

The law is drafted by FAS to execute 2018-2020 National Plan for Developing Competition in the Russian Federation.