OREANDA-NEWS. September 19, 2013. The plenary session of Competition Day in Russia formally opened in Irkutsk. The Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) Igor Artemiev made a report “International Investigations: New Opportunities for Global integration”.

The Head of FAS pointed out that economic globalization resulted in market internationalization with cross-border mergers and anticompetitive practices. It requires establishing competition policy at the supranational level: under the framework of the Customs Union, the CIS and global competition community.

Among priorities of international cooperation the Head of FAS outlines harmonization of national laws and improving enforcement on the basis of the best world practices.

The Head of FAS said that in July 2013 OECD Competition Committee pronounced that Russia’s competition policy fit OECD standards. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development issued Recommendations to enhance the quality of economic analysis, strengthen links between antimonopoly and criminal laws, and reduce state participation on competitive markets. In its turn, FAS announced initiatives for excluding pre-merger notification, expanding the institution of warnings, and reducing legal qualification of “abusing market dominance”. Implementing these initiatives will allow the competition authority to focus on violations and transactions that significantly affect competition, reduce administrative barriers upon business and the burden upon the antimonopoly bodies.

Among other important initiatives put forward by FAS in the context of ascending OECD, Igor Artemiev mentioned excluding criminal liability for abusing market dominance and synchronizing leniency programmes in administrative and criminal proceedings. According to the Head of FAS, criminal liability will remain only for especially dangerous violations of the antimonopoly law and the efficiency of leniency programs in cartel exposure will be increased.

Igor Artemiev also believes that it is necessary to introduce the mechanism of pre-approval of state enterprises and companies with state participation, which will reduce state participation in the economy and allow forming companies with state participation only in the markets with under-developed competition.

All these FAS initiatives, according to Igor Artemiev, are included in a fundamental document – the Action Plan (“Road Map”) for “Developing Competition and Antimonopoly Policy” adopted by the Government of the Russian Federation on December 2012.