OREANDA-NEWS. March 14, 2013. At the annual extended Collegium session the Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) Igor Artemyev summed up the results of 2012.

Last year, the antimonopoly authority initiated over 10,000 cases upon signs of violating the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, the Federal Law “On Advertising” and the Law on Trade. In 2012 the number of opened cases decreased by 11% in comparison with 2011. “Thus, we reduced pressure on business, paying closer attention to the quality rather than to the number of cases”, pointed out Igor Artemyev. “Majority of cases is initiated against the authorities and municipal bodies. Through the “third antimonopoly package” FAS has introduced the system of warnings and cautions. FAS issued nearly 1500 warnings, 75% of which were executed. Out of 9800 exposed violations, over 8000 were eliminated (84.3%) (a similar figure was in 2011). In 2012, the antimonopoly body imposed turnover fines for over 11 billion Rubles; over 6 billion Rubles are already paid to the budget. FAS issued over 24,000 determinations to impose fines, of which Courts reversed just over 1000 (4.5%).

Executing the function for control over economic concentration, the total number of investigated petitions and notifications taken into account reduced in 2012 nearly twofold in comparison with 2011 due to a decreased number of notifications. Overall, in four years the total number reduced by more than 11 times. This, in its turn, considerably reduced administrative burden upon business. “Every year we prevent formation of around 200 monopolies, prohibiting some mergers and acquisitions”, stated Igor Artemyev.