FAS: LIFTING THE MORATORIUM ON INSPECTIONS OF IT-COMPANIES ALLOWS TO APPLY MECHANISMS OF THE "FIFTH ANTIMONOPOLY PACKAGE"

Sergey Puzyrevsky, State-Secretary – Deputy Head of the FAS Russia, said this at the antimonopoly forum of the Association of Corporate Lawyers

The Deputy Head of the FAS Russia noted that due to the growth of e-commerce, effective mechanisms are necessary to protect citizens and entrepreneurs from possible abuses by "digital" monopolies. In the context of lifting the moratorium on inspections of IT-companies, the application of the mechanisms of the "fifth antimonopoly package" will provide such protection and create barriers to possible abuses.

Nadezhda Sharavskaya, Head of the Department for Social Sphere, Trade and Non-productive Services of the FAS Russia, told about tools for price stabilization in offline trade. She emphasized that the most frequent reason for price changes is  the imbalance of supply and demand. In such situations, reducing the cost of goods by administrative means may lead to even greater distortions in the economy, deterioration of goods quality, reduction in supply and tax revenues, development of the illegal market, as well as the fact that goals for which the regulation is introduced will not be achieved.

Therefore, the Government adopted the Resolution No. 662* developed by the FAS Russia as an instrument of soft regulation. The mechanism demonstrated its effectiveness already at the end of 2023, when agreements on chicken eggs began actively concluded in the regions within the framework of this decree. To improve the efficiency of the process, the FAS Russia sent recommendations to the regions on possible parameters for concluding such agreements and how to avoid major mistakes when concluding them. Where agreements have been concluded, prices on chicken eggs are decreasing. Now, according to the information available in the FAS Russia, they operate in 35 regions. Agreements concluded with 46 manufacturers, 23 wholesale organizations and 9,5 thousand trade organizations.

Oleg Dubkov, Deputy Head of Anti-Cartel Department of the FAS Russia, recalled that since September 1, 2023 cartels on biddings, the conclusion and implementation of which was carried out by a controlled group of persons, are excluded from antimonopoly immunity. In particular, during the discussion Klara Batanova, Deputy Head of Anti-cartel Department, and the forum participants analyzed various options for interaction between such companies and negative consequences of conclusion of such cartel agreements by them. Ms. Batanova also noted that lifting moratorium on inspections of IT-companies will allow to apply antimonopoly measures against IT-companies that concluded anti-competitive agreements prohibited by Articles 11, 16, 17 of the Law on Protection of Competition.

In addition, Oleg Dubkov, using the example of the work of the FAS Russia on the Anti-Cartel GIS project, spoke about digitalization of the process of identifying and proving cartels in biddings.

Reference:

* The Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation of  April 26, 2023 No. 662 "On the permissibility of agreements concluded by state authorities of the subjects of the Russian Federation with economic entities in order to stabilize prices for goods included in the list of certain types of socially significant essential food products, in respect of which maximum permissible retail prices could be established".