OREANDA-NEWS. November 18, 2013. The State Duma of the Russian Federation held the Round Table on “Improving the Antimonopoly Law”. The Head of the Legal Department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) Sergey Puzyrevskiy and his Deputy Sergei Maximov took part in the Round Table.

Attendees included representatives of the Ministry for Economic Development, members of the State Duma, the Federal Tariff Service, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, “Opora Russia”, etc.

The main theme was the new amendments to the draft Law “On introducing Amendments to the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

Sergey Puzyrevskiy pointed out that the amendments are part of the measures specified in the Road Map for developing competition that are approved by the Government of the Russian Federation, and, in line with the recommendations given by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Adopting the amendments will reduce administrative burden upon business and facilitate development of competition in Russia. In particular, the amendments fully abolish post-merger notifications, expand the institution of warnings, restrict establishing state and municipal companies on competitive markets, provide a possibility for allowing agreements on joint operations, and determine the legal status of the Presidium of FAS Russia.

The amendments include the rules for publishing companies’ trading practices. They must be devised upon a determination of the antimonopoly body if an antimonopoly violation is committed, and must include information about the methods for determining the goods prices, volume of sales, essential contract conditions and the grounds for refusing to conclude contracts for supplying goods.

“Some representatives of business have questions with regard to the rules for publishing their trading practices. The rules indicate several items, on which the companies must open information, including the methods for determining the prices, without specifying particular prices, volume of sales, essential contract conditions. Companies shall independently devise the rules for their trading practices, and if they have any questions, they can discuss them with the Antimonopoly Service. These measures are aimed at openness and transparency of the dominant companies”, said Sergey Puzyrevskiy. He explained that if a company sends a petition or a notification to the antimonopoly authority, FAS can issue a determination to approve and publish the rules for trading practices, designed to provide non-discriminatory access to the goods, on the market of which a particular economic entity has the dominant position.

Representatives of the Antimonopoly Service answered questions that related to exclusive rights, and explained that the antimonopoly norms would cover only the goods produced using exclusive rights.

“The amendments on exclusive rights did not appear upon a FAS initiative. All this is spelled out in the “Road Map”. We have undertaken obligations to protect competition when selling items covered by exclusive rights. To a considerable extent FAS took into account foreign practice, when the rights holder is limited by the antimonopoly law to an extent to which his actions restrict competition. Having exclusive rights in Russia, one can do whatever one likes, which is wrong in terms of competition. FAS by no means is entrenching upon an invention; if the latter is transferred for money, it is necessary to follow the rules of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. However, if goods are produced on the basis of an invention, it must be sold on the market under general rules of goods circulation.

Sergey Puzyrevskiy expressed hope that in the near future FAS and business would come to a consensus.