CIS ANTIMONOPOLY AUTHORITIES IN THE FRAMEWORK OF ICAP CONTRIBUTE TO DEVELOPMENT OF HARMONIZED APPROACHES IN VARIOUS AREAS OF COMPETITION REGULATION

It was announced by Maxim Shaskolsky, Chairman of the Council, Head of FAS Russia, at the 54th Meeting of the Interstate Council on Antimonopoly Policy

The event was attended by the heads and representatives of the antimonopoly authorities of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Russia, the Governor of St. Petersburg Alexander Beglov, as well as representatives of the CIS Executive Committee, the Eurasian Economic Commission, and the Eurasian Alliance of Antimonopoly Experts.

Opening the meeting, Maxim Shaskolsky, Chairman of the ICAP, Head of FAS Russia, spoke about future directions of the Council's activities.

Governor of St. Petersburg noted that the activities of ICAP for 30 years have been contributing to the protection of the interests of consumers and producers. This platform gives the participating countries an opportunity to share competencies, knowledge and experience and develop solutions to improve the lives of CIS citizens.   

In turn, the heads of the antimonopoly authorities of the CIS member states, as well as representatives of the Eurasian Economic Commission, reported on key measures in the field of competition policy implemented since the last meeting.

In particular, Jafar Babayev, Deputy Head of the State Service for Antimonopoly Policy and Consumer Market Supervision under the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Azerbaijan, reported on the development of the Competition Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan, which will bring the antimonopoly legislation in line with modern realities.

Gegham Gevorgyan, Chairman of the Commission for the Protection of Competition of the Republic of Armenia, spoke about the continuation of the work of the agency for monitoring compliance with antimonopoly legislation, suppression of unfair competition, and also shared the relevant results of the regulator.

Alexey Bogdanov, Minister of Antimonopoly Regulation and Trade of the Republic of Belarus, noted the close cooperation with FAS Russia and the Agreement on Uniform Competition Rules, which is aimed at ensuring the working conditions of economic entities in the commodity markets of the Union State. He also focused on the development of drug markets, highlighting the main problems of their regulation. The Belarusian department presented a report on the development of these markets in the CIS member states, which was highly appreciated by the Chairman of the ICAP.

Rustam Akhmetov, Vice Chairman of the Agency for the Protection and Development of Competition of the Republic of Kazakhstan, spoke about the regulation of the communications industry. He also reported on the measures taken by the agency to restrict the activities of unscrupulous participants in the specified market.

Keneshbai Tailakov, Chairman of the Antimonopoly Regulation Service under the Ministry of Economy and Commerce of the Kyrgyz Republic, spoke about the Pricing Law. The document establishes the foundations of state policy in the field of pricing and methods of state regulation of prices. He also reported on the agreements concluded with the Ministry of Agriculture of the Kyrgyz Republic for the development of the agro-industrial complex.

Abdulmajid Muminzod, Head of the Antimonopoly Service under the Government of the Republic of Tajikistan, spoke about the approaches and methods of tariff regulation in modern conditions.

Asadulla Kayumov, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for the Development of Competition and Consumer Protection of the Republic of Uzbekistan, shared the statistics of the agency. Over the past three years, 14 thousand anticompetitive actions have been detected, and the interests of 13 million consumers have been protected.

Zhanar Adikova, Director of the Competition Policy and Public Procurement Policy Department of the EEC, spoke about the work of the Eurasian Economic Commission on the new edition of the procedure for considering appeals on violation of antimonopoly legislation. The changes will simplify the procedure and, as a result, improve the mechanism of antimonopoly control.

ICAP plans to actively cooperate with the Eurasian Alliance of Antimonopoly Experts, which was registered in January 2023. During the meeting, a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between the Council and the Association. Its purpose is to organize interaction between the parties on the development of competition policy and effective antimonopoly enforcement practice in the CIS countries. Andrey Tsyganov, Deputy Head of FAS Russia, noted that such cooperation would allow to develop proposals to improve antimonopoly legislation and to promote competition in the commodity markets of the CIS member states.

The meeting included a speech by Sergey Puzyrevsky, Head of the Headquarters for Joint Investigations of violations of the antimonopoly legislation of the CIS member states, Stats Secretary – Deputy Head of FAS Russia. He spoke about the activities of the Headquarters and about the projects currently under way.

During the meeting, Model Principles and standards of activity of digital market participants in the CIS member states were approved. This project was developed by FAS Russia together with other antimonopoly authorities of the CIS countries in order to develop fair competition in digital markets through self-regulation mechanisms. The document contains the basis for the formation of open and non-discriminatory business conditions.

Besides, the participants approved two more documents – an overview of exchange trading in the member countries of the association and a report on the development of commodity markets for medicines in the CIS member states. The documents contain a detailed analysis of the state of the exchange trading market and medicines, respectively, as well as information about the problems of the industries and the prospects for their development.

Regulation of the advertising market is also one of the key activities of the ICAP. Karina Taukenova, Chairman of the Coordinating Council for Advertising at the ICAP, Deputy Head of FAS Russia, made a report on the results of the Council's activities, its plans for 2023-2024, as well as on the launch of the Advertising Literacy project. In addition, she told about the training webinars held by the Service for authorized bodies of the CIS member states. The exchange of experience in the application of advertising legislation is carried out within the framework of the events.

In addition, the heads of structural departments of FAS Russia spoke at the meeting of the Council. In particular, Oksana Kuznetsova, Head of the Department for Interaction with Regional Offices and Coordination of Competition Development Projects of FAS Russia, spoke about the work of the authority on the mechanism of antimonopoly compliance. As a result, in 2022, it was possible to reduce the level of violations of antimonopoly legislation by state authorities and local self-government bodies by 24 % compared to 2021. In addition, for the period from 2020 to 2022, there is a 5-fold decrease in the number of complaints about violations of the administrative regulations of FAS Russia.

Grigory Radionov, Head of the Anti-Cartel Department of FAS Russia, spoke about the identification and suppression of cartel collusion as one of the most dangerous threats in the economic sphere. He noted that the purpose of the work carried out by the authority is to ensure freedom of economic activity in the Russian Federation, protection of competition and creation of conditions for the effective functioning of commodity markets.

Besides, the issue of training and advanced training of employees of antimonopoly authorities was discussed. Anton Teslenko, Head of the Fiscal Control Department of FAS Russia, spoke about the implementation of the authority’s project Academy #LideryFAS, which provides for an additional training program "Master of Competitive Administration". Initially, the program was provided only for civil servants of FAS Russia. Then representatives of other federal executive authorities, employees of institutions subordinate to FAS Russia, students of higher educational institutions joined the project.

In 2023, taking into account the interest of the antimonopoly authorities of the CIS member states in organizing such training, FAS Russia decided to include a special training block for representatives of the Commonwealth countries. Registration for participation in the program is open and will last until June 11.