OREANDA-NEWS. On 7-8 October 2013, Deputy Head of Leningrad OFAS, Gleb Konnov, Deputy Head of Irkutsk OFAS, Alexander Kulish, and Deputy Head of Kaluga OFAS, Dmitry Kretin, stayed on an official friendly visit with the competition authority of the Republic of Poland.

During a two-day workshop, representatives of the regional FAS offices exchanged experience of antimonopoly enforcement with their Polish colleagues, and shared the practice of investigating cartels.

“The antimonopoly law in Russia is formed at the level of the best practices so we not only learned something from our European colleagues but also shared our own achievements with them”, emphasized Gleb Konnov.

As participants were informed, the competition authority of the Republic of Poland is responsible not only for competition protection but also for protecting consumer rights (Russia's competition authority had such powers until 2004). Also cases are appealed at Courts specially formed to consider antimonopoly cases rather than in the courts of general jurisdiction.

The maximum fines in Poland for violating the antimonopoly law can reach 50 million euro. However, such fines have never been imposed yet. The largest fine was imposed upon a Polish telecommunications company - around 10 million euro.

“Cooperation between the antimonopoly authorities of different countries is simply necessary because trading relations are expanding beyond not only an individual country, but the entire continent. In this case it will be impossible to carry out antimonopoly policy without close cooperation, commented Deputy Head of Irkutsk OFAS, Alexander Kulish, emphasizing the importance for exchanging experience in enforcement.