OREANDA-NEWS. July 24, 2013. In 2012 the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) took 17th place in the annual Global Competition Review Rating Enforcement (GCR), which is a leading professional publication on antimonopoly regulation in the world.

The Rating is an international evaluation of the efforts of antimonopoly bodies on competition enforcement based on independent expert assessments by representatives of legal and business communities from across the world under the criteria devised by GCR.

The scores are allocated on the 5-point grading scale; competition authorities are grouped in accordance with the number of scores (stars) as Elite, Very Good, Good and Satisfactory.

For the first time GCR evaluated the work of Russian antimonopoly body in 2006. Russia was given the 36th position out of possible 38, which was very honorable as there are around 140 antimonopoly authorities in the world.

Since 2006 FAS has been consistently improving its indicators and in 2012 was already ranked “Good” sharing the 17th position with the competition authorities of such advanced countries as Austria, Norway, Portugal, Finland, Sweden, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, South Africa, etc.

GCR pointed out that FAS efforts were sustainably efficient in 2012. In their opinion, the increased threshold values for mergers, the introduction of the institutions of “warnings” and “admonitions” reduced the number of cases enabling FAS to focus mainly on combating the most dangerous violations of the antimonopoly law – cartels. Experts also acknowledged that FAS gained experience in investigating complex cases and cartels and undertook serious steps towards strengthening international cooperation, particularly, in cartel investigations.

Recognizing that FAS has the room for improvement in terms of using economic analysis and a wider approach to studying the impact of decisions made by FAS, representatives of the global competition community believe that Russian competition authority is responsible, reacts promptly and is open for cooperation.

Global Competition Review had no doubts that FAS persuaded the skeptics in business, politics and the public that economics built up on competitive market is better for Russia.

Understanding the importance of reinforcing the authority of the Russian Federation at the international level, particularly, to enhance investment attractiveness of the national economy, the Federal Antimonopoly Service will continue paying special attention to an independent evaluation of its work by the international expert community.

“Now Russia’s rating is three stars but we want to be in the leaders and plan to reach the top ten agencies already by 2018”, commented the Head of FAS Department for International Economic Cooperation, Lesya Davydova.