REPRESENTATIVES OF FAS RUSSIA SPOKE ABOUT LEGISLATIVE CHANGES AT A MEETING OF THE HEADS OF THE EAEU ANTIMONOPOLY AUTHORITIES

The position of FAS Russia was presented by Mr. Sergey Puzyrevskiy, Stats-Secretary - Deputy Head of FAS Russia

As the Deputy Head of FAS Russia noted, an important innovation in antimonopoly regulation was the provision of the possibility of restricting the patent rights of the copyright holder. This applies to cases where the restriction is necessary to protect the life and health of citizens. For the first time, the Government of the Russian Federation has issued a compulsory license for the production of a foreign antiviral medicine "Remdesivir" used for the treatment of COVID-19. This decision not only provided citizens with a vital medicine, but also reduced its cost by almost 5 times, significantly reducing budget expenditures.

Besides, FAS Russia has developed a number of regulations to support entrepreneurs and reduce the administrative burden:

-       antimonopoly "immunities" for small and medium-sized businesses have been expanded, now the company cannot be recognized as a dominant economic entity if its annual revenue does not exceed 800 million rubles;

-       control of transactions of economic concentration has been simplified, if the total value of the company's assets ranged from 800 million rubles to 2 billion rubles, the transaction can be made without approval of FAS Russia, but its with subsequent notification;

-       procedure for granting preferences to entrepreneurs has been changed, instead of FAS Russia’s consent in some cases it is enough for the governmental bodies to notify FAS Russia about granting of preferences;

-       it is possible to pay 50% of the fine for concluding anticompetitive agreements, it is applied to cases where the payment occurs within 20 days from the date of the ruling and the company is an SME entity.

Mr. Sergey Puzyrevskiy noted that FAS Russia in its rule-making activities is trying to reduce the administrative burden on business, unify the mandatory requirements of antimonopoly control in transactions of economic concentration and prevent violations of antimonopoly legislation. Representatives of the antimonopoly authorities of the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, in turn, noted that their states seek to harmonize competition policy within the borders of the EAEU and are ready to implement the best pro-competitive practices of other members of the organization.