CARTELS POSE A REAL THREAT TO THE COUNTRY'S ECONOMIC SECURITY

They cause significant damage to the state budget, undermine the foundations of a market economy, deprive the long-term competitiveness of goods and services produced in the country, and often involve strategically important areas of the economy

Conclusion of the FAS Russia is contained in the Report on the state of competition in the Russian Federation for 2019.

Last year, the FAS Russia initiated 944 cases on the conclusion of agreements restricting competition and prohibited concerted actions, including 424 cases on cartels. At the same time, more than 87% of cartel cases are collusions at auction (320 cases).

More than a third of anticompetitive agreements are related to restricting competition in the field of repair and construction, including federal, regional and local roads, including their maintenance and improvement of adjacent territories (37%). Medicines – 11%, food – 10%, transportation – 8 %; real estate transactions – 6%; fuel – 5%, major repairs – 4%.

In order to effectively counteract cartels, as well as to tighten criminal and administrative responsibility for participating in them, the FAS Russia has developed a number of draft laws that provide for:

-         improving the disposition of article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and increasing sanctions for collusion in auctions;

-         the right of antimonopoly authorities to receive the results of operational search activities;

-         introduction of a register of participants in agreements restricting competition;

-         granting the antimonopoly authority the right to seize documents and items when conducting unscheduled on-site inspections in cases of cartels;

-         increasing the statute of limitations for cartel cases;

-         conclusion of a cooperation agreement between the antimonopoly authorities and the business entity submitted for the purpose of mitigation or exemption from liability;

-         introduction of a warning about the possibility of bringing administrative and criminal liability for participation in an anticompetitive agreement in the notification of procurement;

-         tougher administrative responsibility for obstructing the legitimate activities of an official of the antimonopoly authority.

In accordance with the list of Orders of the President of the Russian Federation[1], the FAS Russia developed the concept of the analytical information system “Anti-Cartel” (or “Big digital cat”) to automate the process of identifying and proving cartels and other anticompetitive agreements.

Last year, the FAS Russia prepared and implemented the first module AIS “Antikartel”, designed to analyze the procurement database of the unified information system in the field of procurement.

Further development and implementation of all anti-cartel AIS modules in the FAS Russia will significantly improve the effectiveness of countering anticompetitive agreements. As a result, significant budget savings will be achieved, as well as the necessary digital transformation aimed at improving the quality of implementation of the functions assigned to the antimonopoly authority.

Effective work on countering cartels is impossible without active interaction with law enforcement agencies.

For example, in order to improve interaction between supervisory, regulatory and law enforcement agencies, the Government of the Russian Federation[2] approved an interdepartmental program of measures to identify and suppress cartels and other agreements restricting competition for 2019-2023.

In 2019, the antimonopoly authorities sent 157 reports of crimes to law enforcement agencies for consideration and decision-making.

As a result of their consideration, the investigative authorities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation initiated 37 criminal cases, 22 of which were under article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

In 2019, the courts reviewed and for the first time in several years issued guilty sentences in four criminal cases (St. Petersburg, Samara, Saratov and Novosibirsk). Three sentences came into force.

“Cartels are a great evil in the economy of all countries. All those who conspire at auctions, agree on prices, in fact, are in a conspiracy against consumers, against Russian citizens. You cannot do without criminal cases here. We try not only to punish the perpetrators, but also to explain that such practices are condemned, that under Russian laws it is impossible to do so, and we hope that this understanding