FAS ON NEW CHALLENGES FOR COMPETITION AUTHORITIES IN A PANDEMIC

Representatives of the FAS Russia take part in a regular meeting of the OECD Competition Committee. Within the framework of the events, a session on the topic "The role of competition policy in promoting economic recovery" was held in the videoconference format

During the event, the Chairman of the OECD Competition Committee Frederic Jenny appreciated the importance of the issue raised in the FAS Russia report. The Russian competition authority noted that the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the fourth industrial revolution, which is leading the economies of all countries of the world to global change.

Experts believe that for Russia, such changes, on the one hand, exacerbate pre-existing threats to the country's economic development, and on the other hand, open up tremendous opportunities for the accelerated development of both the "digital sectors" of the economy, and for the rapid transformation of "non-digital" industries into a format that meets the demands of the already established digital reality.

“Global digitalization is a challenge for competition authorities around the world. Against the backdrop of the pandemic, digital platforms have gained particular importance and are rapidly increasing their presence in the market. For the FAS Russia, new challenges are the opportunity to improve the antimonopoly legislation, to "keep pace with the times". Taking into account the need to adapt antimonopoly regulation to the new realities and needs of the digital economy, we have developed the so-called "fifth antimonopoly package" of amendments to the antimonopoly legislation. In particular, the key novelties of the “fifth antimonopoly package” concern, firstly, the criteria for establishing the dominant position of participants in digital markets, and secondly, the regulations on transactions of economic concentration, under which the rights to the results of intellectual activity are transferred” - noted Andrey Tsyganov, Deputy Head of the FAS Russia.

During the session of the OECD Competition Committee, such groups of issues as the main future challenges in the current crisis, the value of the flexibility of antimonopoly legislation to deal with recovery, proposals for pro-competitive reforms, the importance of advocacy competition, and the questions of application of the state aid economic principles in the current context were raised. Frederic Jenny, Chairman of the OECD Competition Committee, moderated the session. Keynote speakers for this event were William Kovacic, Georgetown University Professor, and Philip Lowe, Oxera partner. OECD and European Commission experts, representatives of competition authorities from Germany, Spain, Italy, Mexico, USA and the Philippines also took the floor during the session.