OREANDA-NEWS. November 01, 2012. A FAS delegation led by Stats-Secretary, Deputy Head of FAS Andrey Tsarikovskiy, took part in the meetings of the Competition Committee of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, reported the press-centre of FAS Russia.

At the meetings of OECD Competition Committee FAS made reports on “Competition and Payment Systems” and “The Role of Efficiency Requirements in Antimonopoly Proceedings”.

Participants were especially interested in a session on the “Role of Efficiency Requirements in Antimonopoly Proceedings” where they were able to discuss how competition authorities evaluate efficiency requirements. In the context of mergers, discussion focused on the best method of evaluating potential positive effect by competition authorities and how this positive effect can oppose any adverse price effect of the transaction, as well as the issues related to increasingly frequent use of efficiency requirements to justify certain conduct of dominant companies.

Andrey Tsarikovskiy stated that “in order to protect competition and create conditions for effective market functioning, the Law on competition protection prohibits certain actions (omissions), agreements, concerted actions, transactions, other actions that restrict competition. Article 13 of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition” establishes criteria of allowability of actions (omissions), agreements, concerted actions, transactions, other actions, restricted by the antimonopoly law. Establishing such criteria in Russian antimonopoly law conform the provisions of the antimonopoly law of the European Union*”.

As pointed out by the Head of FAS Department for International Economic Cooperation, Lesya Davydova, “we have things to share with our foreign colleagues. Such Round Tables that last practically the whole day clearly show that there are common problems both in the field of basic methodologies and specific enforcement. Global practices here are truly diverse”.

Reference:

Treaty Establishing the European Community

Article 81

1. The following shall be prohibited as incompatible with the common market: all agreements between undertakings, decisions by associations of undertakings and concerted practices which may affect trade between Member States and which have as their object or effect the prevention, restriction or distortion of competition within the common market, and in particular those which:

a) Directly or indirectly fix purchase or selling prices or any other trading conditions;

(b) Limit or control production, markets, technical development, or investment;

(c) Share markets or sources of supply;

(d) Apply dissimilar conditions to equivalent transactions with other trading parties, thereby placing them at a competitive disadvantage;

(e) Make the conclusion of contracts subject to acceptance by the other parties of supplementary obligations which, by their nature or according to commercial usage, have no connection with the subject of such contracts.

2. Any agreements or decisions prohibited pursuant to this Article shall be automatically void.

3. The provisions of paragraph 1 may, however, be declared inapplicable in the case of:

— Any agreement or category of agreements between undertakings,

— Any decision or category of decisions by associations of undertakings,

— Any concerted practice or category of concerted practices, which contributes to improving the production or distribution of goods or to promoting technical or economic progress, while allowing consumers a fair share of the resulting benefit, and which does not:

(a) Impose on the undertakings concerned restrictions which are not indispensable to the attainment of these objectives;

(b) Afford such undertakings the possibility of eliminating competition in respect of a substantial part of the products in question.