OREANDA-NEWS. In October 201, a delegation of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) completed training in Stockholm, organized by Swedish competition authority.

In the course of the training FAS representatives learned about the goals, structure and the powers of the foreign competition authority, discussed in detail anti-cartel efforts, evaluating efficiency of the work of competition authorities, international cooperation, as well as the principles of working with confidential information.

Considering anti-cartel efforts, Russia's and Sweden's parties pointed out at the fact that this area remains a priority for the competition authorities of both countries. Special attention was paid to the issues of obtaining evidence of cartels, one of the efficient methods of which is the so-called “dawn raids”.

The FAS delegation was interested in the experience of their Swedish colleagues in exposing bid-rigging in public procurement, since Swedish competition authority, like FAS, is assigned such powers.

Swedish competition authority has a special unit for accepting the “signals” about collusions, which tender organizers typically approach revealing suspicious behavior of procurement participants. To help procurement organizers, Swedish competition authority, following OECD recommendations, published a technical brochure - “12 Points Indicating a Cartel”. It describes possible situations and conduct of procurement participants. Identifying at least two points out of the 12 described in the brochure should evoke suspicions of collusions.

In Sweden, as well as in Russia, considerable attention is paid to competition advocacy. Its goals achieving can be achieved, in particular, by disseminating such brochures, organizing workshops in all regions of the country and various conferences on the pressing issues of competition protection.

The Russian delegation also was interested in the approaches used in Sweden to evaluate efficiency of the government agencies, including the Competition Authority. Such evaluation is based on the annual surveys of entrepreneurs and citizens as well as the Authority's annual report to the Government of Sweden.

In recent years, Swedish competition authority has been actively using the LEAN system of management, evaluated by the Swedish colleagues as one of efficient management systems, originally employed on TOYOTA plants in Japan. The system is based on the principles of clear determination of the competences of each unit and each officer, strict delineation of competences, and prevention of functions overlapping.

In the context of establishing the Common Economic Space of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus, the FAS delegation was especially interested in delineating the powers between the national antimonopoly body of Sweden and the European Commission, as well as the experience of Sweden's Competition Authority under the framework of “Nordic cooperation” between Scandinavian antimonopoly bodies that have an agreement on exchanging confidential information. The global competition community believes that possibilities of such exchange ensure the most efficient suppression of cross-border violations.

“Upon the three-day training, the antimonopoly experts confirmed the importance of organizing such events, because they, first, allow to learn about the best enforcement practices and, second, facilitate cooperation between the antimonopoly authorities of different countries in the world, which is essential in the globalised economy when violations of the antimonopoly law increasingly have a cross-border nature”, summed up Deputy Head of FAS Department for International Economic Cooperation, Tatiana Oinvid.