OREANDA-NEWS. April 26, 2013. The 22nd session of the Headquarters for Joint Investigations of the Antimonopoly Law of the CIS Member-States, led by Deputy Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) Anatoly Golomolzin, took place in Minsk.

The session was attended by representatives of the antimonopoly bodies of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, as well as the Eurasian Economic Commission, non-commercial partnership and executive bodies of the Republic of Belarus.

Anatoly Golomolzin informed the session about the results of the efforts of the Working Group on pricing on the markets of oil and oil products and the methods of their functioning.

In the course of five sessions throughout 2012-2013, the Working Group discussed some methodological issues of market analysis, including determination of product and geographical boundaries of wholesale and retail markets of oil and oil products, pricing on world markets and their impact upon wholesale prices on the national markets. In March 2013, the Working Group paid special attention to developing and functioning of the Programme on the “Information Exchange Platform”.

“The Platform will allow competition authorities to exchange information, related to the national markets of oil and oil products. It will enhance efficiency of cooperation between competition authorities, particular, as part of investigating antimonopoly cases. To develop the Platform, FAS is working in close cooperation with the colleagues from Austria’s Federal Competition Authority”, pointed out Anatoly Golomolzin.

By mid-2013, FAS together with Austria’s Federal Competition Authority plan to prepare a Report, particular, on the issues discussed at previous sessions of the Working Group.

The Head of FAS Department for Control over Chemical Industry and Agro-Industry, Anna Mirochinenko, talked about monitoring prices for food products using a method devised together with the antimonopoly bodies of Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

Prices are monitored in the capital cities of the CIS member-states as of 1st February 2013. The monitoring takes into account consumer prices for essential socially-important food products.

As pointed out by Anna Mirochinenko, the purpose of the monitoring is to expose comparable markets for joint investigations.

The Headquarters also discussed preparation of a draft report on the state of competition on the market of medicines of the CIS member-states and monitoring of prices for medicines. The draft will be submitted for consideration by ICAP members already in September.

The antimonopoly authorities of the CIS member-states exchanged information about the work completed as part of implementing a decision of the Council of the Heads of CIS Governments “On the State of Competition on the Markets of Sales of Food Products through the Trading Networks of the CIS Member-States”. The Headquarters specially distinguished the work of the antimonopoly bodies of Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus for devising the law on trading, as well as the work of FAS and the antimonopoly authority of the Kyrgyz Republic for introducing changes to the existing law on trading.

In view of the decisions of the previous sessions of the Headquarters and ICAP in 2013, the Headquarters intensified efforts for studying the grain mark the CIS member-states. At the past session, the Headquarters approved the action plan and the structure of the report that would be prepared upon its results.