OREANDA-NEWS. May 16, 2013. A delegation of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) led by Stats-Secretary, Deputy Head of FAS, Andrey Tsarikovskiy, took part in the 12th Annual Conference of the International Competition Network (ICN) in Warsaw.

The Conference participants were welcomed by the President of the Republic of Poland, Bronislaw Komorowski; the President of the office for Competition and Consumer Protection of the Republic of Poland, Maіgorzata Krasnodкbska-Tomkiel; and the ICN Chair, Eduardo Perez Motta.

Bronislaw Komorowski pointed out that “competition works for consumer benefit. Informed consumers drive economic transformations since their choice stimulates economic growth and accelerates innovative processes”.

The Conference included 10 plenary and 30 break-out section sessions, mainly focused on competition advocacy, anti-cartel efforts, merger control and preventing abuse of dominance.

There was also a presentation of a special project “Working with Courts and Judges” prepared by Poland’s competition authority. Participants reviewed the process of making judicial rulings and the set of tools and methods used by ICN members to defend their positions at Courts to protect competition. Judges exercise enormous influence upon competition policy since they can reconsider and change decisions made by a competition authority.

At a meeting of Cartel Working Group FAS representatives underlined the problems faced by competition authorities cooperating in the course of anti-cartel investigations when there is an issue of exchanging confidential information. There are many practical methods of exchanging such information, for instance, obtaining a confidentiality waiver from a company under antimonopoly investigation, although no tradition has been yet established.

At the Conference FAS once again was elected a member of ICN Steering Group and a Co-Chair of ICN Operational Framework Working Group.

Apart from conference work, a FAS delegation held negotiations with representatives of competition authorities of a number of countries and international organizations. In particular, the issues of further developing cooperation in the field of competition policy were discussed in detail with the antimonopoly bodies of Italy, India, Australia, Norway and BRICS countries.

FAS delegation also exchanged opinions on the pressing issues of competition policy and enforcement with the ICN Chair, Eduardo Perez Motta; the Chairman of OECD Competition Committee, Frederic Jenny; and the Director General of the Directorate General for Competition of the European Commission, Alexander Italianer.