OREANDA-NEWS. September 23, 2013. An international event - Russian Competition Day included a Round Table “Cooperation between Antimonopoly Bodies, Information exchange” organized with support from “Promoting Competition in the CIS States” Non-Commercial Partnership.

The discussion brought together representatives of the competition authorities of Russia, Ukraine, Japan, Italy, India, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Estonia and representatives of international organizations (OECD, UNCTAD, the Eurasian Economic Commission, the European Commission) as well as practicing lawyers. The Round Table was moderated by Andrey Tsyganov, Deputy Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia).

One of the key speakers was John Davies, the Head of OECD Competition Department, who emphasized that in globalized economy and mutually penetrating markets effective protection of competition and suppressing anti-competitive practices requires multilateral cooperation between the antimonopoly bodies, including information exchange.

The Head of UNCTAD Competition Branch Hassan Qaquaya shared experience of exchanging information at the regional level. A positive example of such regional cooperation is given by Latin America. Under UNCTAD framework, three countries (Columbia, Chile and Peru) developed an interactive platform where information about cartel instigations in these jurisdictions is collected. On the one hand, information from this source forms the basis for exchanging experience between the countries participating in this platform; on the other – it can give the grounds for parallel investigations. For the purposes of enhancing efficiency of cooperation between the antimonopoly bodies across the CIS, Hassan Qaquaya put forward an idea to create a similar platform for the CIS states under UNCTASD framework.

Dag Johansson informed the Round Table participants about experience of exchanging information between the countries of the European Union: “Recently around half of the cases required international cooperation: different antimonopoly bodies possessed different pieces of the puzzle. For instance, the EU carried out “dawn raids” jointly with the US … Now we are conducing intensive negotiations with Canada on signing a “2nd generation agreement” to exchange confidential information. So far such an agreement is signed only with Switzerland.”

Dag Johansson also emphasized that information should always be provided timely and on a reciprocal basis. “The whole process of cooperation between the antimonopoly bodies should be built on mutual interest and trust”.

In the second part of the Round Table moderated by the Head of FAS Anti-Cartel Department, Andrey Tenischev, and the Chairman of “Promoting Competition in the CIS States” Non-Commercial Partnership, Vasily Rudomino, participants discussed a hypothetical situation, when without obtaining evidence from foreign competition authorities it would be very difficult for FAS to prove an international cartel.

The discussion outlines the main problems associated with such cooperation. First of all, difficulties in organizing parallel inspections due to different time zones – not only in different states, for instance, across the European Union, but even within the same country – Russia that has 9 time zones.

Another barrier to international cooperation is difference in national laws which prevent free exchanging information required for investigation. “Although everything in the world is globalizing, competition authorities continue working within the boundaries of their national law”, emphasized a member of India’s Competition Commission, Justice S. N. Dhingra. However, as pointed out Mr. Sepe, a representative of Italian competition authority, cultural and language barriers shall remain even after approximating competition law.

At the end of the Round Table practicing lawyers “Promoting Competition in the CIS States” Non-Commercial Partnership shared their experience of consulting companies that became a target of investigations by the antimonopoly bodies. They explained what issues face a company under international investigation, how decisions on cooperating with antimonopoly bodies are made, as well as possible strategies of company’s behavior and the balance of risks incurred by a company choosing a particular behavior.

Summing up the Round Table, Vasily Rudomino proposed to organize such events on a regular basis since they enable identifying problems in international cooperation and, what’s most important, the ways to resolve them.