HEAD OF FAS: JOINT WORK IN THE FIELD OF ANTIMONOPOLY POLICY IS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF THE INTEGRATION DEVELOPMENT OF THE CIS COUNTRIES
Maxim Shaskolsky, Head of FAS Russia, told this during the 54th Meeting of the Interstate Council on Antimonopoly Policy in St. Petersburg
According to him, the activities of antimonopoly regulators ensure the market nature of economic policy in the CIS countries on the basis of free competition, as well as contribute to the development of trade and economic relations.
For 30 years of the work of the ICAP, this body has taken a leading place among the bodies of sectoral cooperation in the CIS. Due to its activities, a contractual and legal framework has been formed, which has become the basis for the harmonization of the antimonopoly legislation of the CIS member states and the development of cooperation in a wide range of areas.
New processes in the global economy have set the antimonopoly authorities the task of rapid response and taking measures in various markets, including traditionally competitive ones.
In particular, the close attention of FAS Russia to the work of retail chains ensured the formation of conscientious practices based on social responsibility. As a result, it enable to reduce the average aggregate level of margins of the 11 largest chains for "first price" goods of 25 categories of socially significant food products by 8 % in 2022, and for the entire monitoring period – by almost 16 %. To date, this practice has been supported by about 90 regional retail chains.
Important work has been carried out in terms of providing agricultural producers with mineral fertilizers at affordable prices. Together with other authorities, trade and sales policies have been developed, an acceptable level of prices for fertilizers, the procedure for their indexing and the percentage of remuneration of distributors have been determined. All major producers of mineral fertilizers in Russia have agreed such policies with the authority, and FAS Russia monitors their compliance.
In order to ensure consumer demand, the Government of the Russian Federation has implemented a parallel import regime, for the introduction of which FAS Russia has been advocating for many years. As Maxim Shaskolsky noted, with parallel imports, we are talking exclusively about legally purchased original goods from foreign manufacturers, the quality and safety of which can be checked and confirmed. Now FAS Russia, jointly with the business community and with the active participation of copyright holders, is working on a system to combat counterfeit goods. It is important that this mechanism helps to effectively combat counterfeiting, while not infringing on the rights of bona fide entrepreneurs.
The authority also paid close attention to the communications services market. Cellular tariffs are not regulated by the state and are set by operators independently. Nevertheless, taking into account the fact that operators occupy a collective dominant position, FAS Russia checks the tariffs set by them for economic validity.
For example, one of the operators in 2022 raised the tariff for 28 million subscribers by more than 20 %, which violated Paragraph 1 of Part 1 of Article 10 of the Law on Protection of Competition (establishment, maintenance of monopolistically high prices). Another operator increased the tariff for more than 16.5 million subscribers by 16 %, which also violated the Law on Protection of Competition. FAS Russia issued a ruling to both companies to reduce tariffs to an economically reasonable level.
Investigations were conducted against a number of dominant companies in the construction materials markets in 2022. FAS Russia has revealed the facts of establishing monopolistically high prices on the market of hot-rolled flat products, flat glass, wood materials, aerated concrete blocks. The companies have been issued regulations aimed at ensuring competition and lowering prices, as well as a clearly formulated position on the need for priority saturation of the domestic market at affordable prices for consumers.
As part of the work to curb cartels, FAS Russia and its regional offices in 2022 initiated 305 cases on agreements restricting competition and coordination of economic activities, within which 292 decisions were made on violation of antimonopoly legislation. 960 resolutions on the imposition of administrative fines totaling more than 5 billion 45 million rubles were issued, and the total amount of fines paid in 2022 amounted to 1 billion 385 million rubles.
Repair and construction markets, including highways, supplies of medical devices, housing and communal services in terms of the provision of services for the transportation of MSW, as well as real estate sales are still the leaders in the number of violations identified.
In 2022, the authority paid significant attention to checking the economic validity of tariffs in the fields of electric power and housing and communal services. According to the results of inspections, 3 billion 580 million rubles of unreasonably pledged funds were excluded from the required gross revenue of regulated organizations.
Last year, antitrust measures were taken against four airports. Besides, in the field of air transportation, more than 25 tariff proposals were considered, of which 15 decisions were made aimed at curbing the growth of tariffs, 10 proposals were rejected. The preservation of competition between airlines, together with the decisions taken, allowed to restrain the prices of air travel for citizens.
Another important task is the creation of national price indicators. The tool for its formation is the development of exchange trading and registration of over-the-counter transactions. FAS Russia, together with relevant ministries and the Bank of Russia, have been working for a long time to create and improve such tools. The first market where they became in demand was the oil industry, but the experience gained is planned to be extended to other markets.
The formation of national price indicators will allow avoiding the use of foreign quotations, reduce the risks of violation of antimonopoly legislation, create new sales channels and the possibility of purchasing goods on competitive terms.
At the end of his speech, Maxim Shaskolsky highlighted the priority areas of the ICAP's activities for the near future. These include joint research in socially significant markets, developing coordinated approaches to regulating digital markets and positions on international competition policy, strengthening the fight against cartels and improving the level of training of employees of the antimonopoly authorities of the CIS countries, including on the basis of FAS Russia Center in Kazan.
The Head of FAS Russia noted that the in-depth professional expertise of the ICAP participants in the protection and development of competition allows antimonopoly authorities to participate in the formation of the economic policy of their states and promote socio-economic transformations, which contributes to the economic growth of the CIS states.