ARTEM MOLCHANOV: INITIATIVE TO IMPLEMENT COMPLIANCE SHOULD COME FROM BUSINESS LEADERS

However, certification of compliance might be voluntary

Artem Molchanov, Head of the Legal Department of the FAS Russia, assessed the prospects for implementing Antimonopoly compliance during the conference “Compliance: building an effective system in the company”. At the beginning of his presentation, the speaker noted that Antimonopoly compliance could be expressed in various ways in companies, but the system of dealing with the risks of violation of Antimonopoly legislation has already become a reality.

Artem Molchanov noted that the Authority certainly welcomes the adoption of the law that gave a normative definition of compliance [1] and focused on another one aspect.

“As part of the work on the new Code of administrative violations, we propose to provide for the mitigation of administrative sanctions in cases where the compliance system allowed to detect violations of antimonopoly legislation and stop them,” he stressed.

The representative of the Antimonopoly authority also spoke about the main comments of the FAS Russia on draft compliance documents received from organizations.

“The Law on Protection of Competition provides for minimum requirements for the organization of the Antimonopoly compliance system. However, we received the drafts of some documents which did not include any specific mechanisms or tools for its implementation and subsequent work, in particular, mechanisms for identifying risks and measures to reduce them,” the speaker explained.

Artem Molchanov also answered the question on whose side the initiative to introduce antimonopoly compliance in companies should come from.

“The understanding that compliance is necessary should come from the owners and top management of companies. For its effective functioning in the company, the involvement of the management is extremely necessary,” he said.

The Head of the Legal Department of the FAS Russia gave the example of a large regional company that violated the antimonopoly laws for a long time, because of existed risks, which led to negative response by the FAS Russia for the organization. However, introduction of compliance allowed the company not only to eliminate investigation by the Authority, but also significantly improve the efficiency of its activities.

“Risks can be both accepted and prevented. In the mentioned company, violations were subjected to a serious analysis, after which it decided to implement compliance, which minimized the risks of violations of antimonopoly legislation,” Artem Molchanov added.

[1] Federal Law No. 33-FZ of March 1, 2020 “On Introducing Amendments to the Federal Law on Protection of Competition”