OREANDA-NEWS.  June 25, 2012. A delegation of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia), led by Deputy Head of FAS Russia Andrey Tsyganov took part in meetings of the Competition Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and its working groups in Paris, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia. 

FAS presented several reports, in particular, “Market Definition”, “Evaluating the impact of enforcement activities” etc. All these issues are of undeniable interest for Russian antimonopoly body, and the results of discussions over such issues show that Russia is improving the antimonopoly law and develops enforcement in line with the best global practices.

Participants were especially interested in “Market Definition”. According to Andrey Tsyganov, one of the key violations of the antimonopoly law, which requires analysis of the statement of competition on a particular market, is abuse of market dominance by an economic entity, in particular, by fixing and maintaining monopolistically high prices, withdrawing goods from circulation by economic entities, if such withdrawals resulted in increasing prices. To prove such facts of violations, the antimonopoly body must determine characteristics of the market where the violation was committed. Otherwise, any conduct of an economic entity, in particular, a justified increase of prices, can be considered as an anticompetitive conduct rather than an integral element of market economy as well as unlawful conduct can remain out of scope of interest of the competition authority. When conduct of an economic entity can be classified as anticompetitive on the basis of formal signs (an oral or a written agreement, violating of competitive bidding procedures, disseminating knowingly incorrect information about goods etc.), detailed analysis is not required.

“In the Russian Federation the need for comprehensive competitive market analysis in the cases specified by the antimonopoly law is at a reasonable optimal level”, said Deputy Head of the FAS Russia. “In the near and medium-term prospects the main approaches to market analysis will not be changing considerably”.

FAS intends to continue active cooperation with OECD in order to maintain reputation of the Russian Federation among global competition authorities and to develop relations with the leading experts on competition policy.