OREANDA-NEWS. November 19, 2013. Bulgaria hosted the Sofia Competition Forum, organized by the Commission of the Republic of Bulgaria for Competition Protection and UN Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) was represented by the Head of FAS Analytical Department, Alexei Sushkevich.

The central item of the Forum agenda was using mass media data for antimonopoly investigations.

As Alexei Sushkevich pointed out, information in mass media, in particular, can cause antimonopoly investigations of cartels or cases against the authorities. “Using such information, however, requires mandatory corroboration by the antimonopoly body in the course of an investigation, since Courts typically do not consider it a sufficient and reliable evidence”, added the Head of FAS Analytical Department.

Most often information from mass media allows expose “naive” cartels when participants do not try to hide it as they do not understand that this is a violation. Over the years there have been fewer and fewer companies like this: market participants learn form each other’s mistakes. In this case the sources of knowledge also are mass media.

Nowadays, company’s sales policy, decisions of associations and data on the prices for various goods and services constitute valuable information published in mass media. Its value is in possible signs of contend as well as anticompetitive actions. Therefore, the antimonopoly bodies daily monitor mass media on a bi-weekly basis.