OREANDA-NEWS.  July 25, 2012. The Head of FAS Igor Artemyev, speaking at a workshop in Gorno-Altaisk, stated that the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) effectively is shaping good practices to make sure that the authorities and entrepreneurs behave in good faith on the market, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

According to Igor Artemyev, now Courts are considering a lot of antimonopoly cases on abusing market dominance, cartels, unfair competition, unlawful preferences granted by the authorities, etc. “Antimonopoly disputes can take second place in judicial practice after tax disputes”, believes Igor Artemyev.

The Head of FAS also pointed out that the Federal Law “On Protecting Competition” spells out procedural issues. “Our procedure for case consideration is similar to the judicial one. Simply instead of three judges a case is heard by a Commission comprising 5-7 persons; both parties to a case are invited to the hearing and are able to present their arguments and make submissions. The Court rulings are more important because they are final, and FAS decisions are the intermediary ones”, stated the Head of FAS.

At the same time, Igor Artemyev reminded that Courts reverse only15 % of FAS decisions. “We also make mistakes, and Courts help us improve, when we violate the procedures or cannot prove the facts of violations. Self-improvement of FAS happens at the pleasure of Courts – it hurts to lose a case when it took us months to prepare it. We need to prepare and conduct cases at courts more carefully”, considers that Head of the antimonopoly authority.

Igor Artemyev clarified that effectiveness at Courts is the key element of evaluating the work of regional FAS offices.

The Head of FAS reminded that Russia’s economy is heavily cartelized. Therefore, combating cartels has become one of FAS priorities. To this purpose several years ago the Antimonopoly Service formed a special department to combat cartels. “Today we already learned to carry out the so-called “dawn raids” that all antimonopoly authorities across the globe carry out. We have also learned to cooperate with the law enforcement bodies, since FAS does not have powers for operational-and-investigative activities”, summarized Igor Artemyev.

The Head of FAS informed the workshop that FAS had signed agreements with American and European regulators and established a contact with Interpol to carry out joint investigations of cartels on international markets as Russia is an important element within BRICS system and in the world in general.

Igor Artemyev did not forget to once again emphasize Russia’s achievements in state procurement. “In terms of the scale of its objectives and openness and transparency of information about state and municipal procurement, No.94 Federal Law “On Procurement…” is unprecedented in the world”, said Igor Artemyev.

According to the Head of FAS, in the past several years when No.94 Federal Law is into force, small and medium business have received no less than 400 billion Rubles through the state procurement system in Russia. “Earlier pseudo- competitive biddings took place, nobody knew about them. Now around 20 companies take part in auctions on some positions, and local and regional companies often win”, is convinced Igor Artemyev.

The Head of FAS pointed out that he was not happy with No. 223 Law on procurement by holders of natural monopolies and state-run companies. “So far this Law concerns only increasing openness of information about procurement by natural monopolies and state-run companies. In principle, the same approach should be applied to them as to the ordering parties under the procedures specified in No.94 Federal Law. Natural monopolies and state-run companies irrationally spend money for procurement. Unfortunately, it often influence their tariff policy, which ultimately adversely affects consumers”, thinks Igor Artemyev.