OREANDA-NEWS. April 23, 2012. At the 11th Annual Conference of the International Competition Network (ICN), that takes place in Rio-de-Janeiro, the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) held negotiations with representatives of Italy’s Competition Authority, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

FAS was represented by Stats-Secretary, Deputy Head of FAS Russia, Andrey Tsarikovsky, the Head of FAS Department for International Economic Cooperation, Lesya Davydova, and the Head of FAS Department for Control over Industry and Defence Complex, Maksim Ovchinnikov.

Italy’s Competition Authority was represented by the Chairman of Competition Authority, Giovanni Pitruzzella, and his Deputy, Commissioner Salvatore Rebecchini.

The parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding in the field of competition policy. Similar memorandums were signed in 2011 between FAS Russia and competition authorities of Austria and Spain. Such arrangements presuppose transition to a fundamentally different level of cooperation between competition authorities in antimonopoly enforcement: exchanging non-confidential information, coordinating activities, joint market investigations.

The parties informed each other about the main areas of their work, functions, scope of reference and structure, and discussed the main objectives in the field of competition enforcement in Russia and Italy.

The parties also discussed the prospects of bilateral cooperation, in particular, possibility of transition to action-oriented cooperation between the authorities as part of joint investigations of violations of competition law and investigating transactions on cross-border markets. The parties also determined the issues of common interest in terms of joint investigations under the framework of recently formed Working Group on oil and oil products, as well as proposed Working Group on the problems of competition on the pharmaceutical market, co-chaired by Italy’s Competition Authority.

The parties expressed their hope that the meeting would lay foundation for even more effective and productive cooperation between the two authorities in the field of competition.

Reference:
International Competition Network (ICN) was formed in 2001 by 14 competition authorities from different countries as an international forum for competition bodies. Now ICN comprises 123 member - agencies from over 108 jurisdictions, which makes it the most extensive network of competition authorities across the globe. ICN mission is to maintain the highest standards and procedures of competition enforcement and competition policy in all parts of the world, formulate proposals for procedural and substantive cooperation and facilitate effective international cooperation in the interests of member – agencies, consumers and economies around the world.