OREANDA-NEWS. September 26, 2011. Speaking at the 2nd BRICS Competition Conference in Beijing (China), the Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) Mr. Igor Artemyev called upon the antimonopoly bodies of BRICS member-states to jointly investigate cartels, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

According to the Head of FAS, it is necessary to develop exchange information between BRICS countries in course of joint investigations of cartels in accordance to specially devised procedures.

Mr. Igor Artemyev told about Russian experience of combatting cartels. “Last year Russian antimonopoly authority exposed five national cartels, initiated criminal proceedings against their participants and “turnover” fines reached millions of Rubles”, said the Head of FAS.

Mr. Igor Artemyev also told the attendees about the first cases in Russia when government officials were disqualified for violating the antimonopoly law upon court rulings.

“Combatting cartels is one the main priorities in Russia is to combat cartels”, declared the Head of FAS. He also called to organise joint conferences and form working groups on the issue of economic concentration of the antimonopoly bodies of the CIS member-states.

Mr. Igor Artemyev outlined the trend towards reducing the number of petitions submitted to FAS: in 2008 around 13,000 petitions were filed, while in 2010 no more than 3000 petitions were received by FAS. It happened due to changes introduced to the law. “Now FAS can concentrate on truly large transactions affecting the state of competition in Russia”, stated Mr. Artemyev. At the same time a larger number of transactions in comparison with other countries can be explained by the fact that FAS controls natural monopolies so they do not prevent entry of other economic entices to the market.

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The 1st BRIC Conference was initiated by the Federal Antimonopoly Service and took place just over two years in Kazan, Russia. During this period BRIC boundaries have expanded – on 23rd December 2010 Brazil, Russia, India and China were joined by the Republic of South Africa.

BRICS International Competition Conference is an ideal platform for mutual exchange of experiences and knowledge in the field of antimonopoly enforcement and harmonization of approaches to competition regulation in BRICS member countries.