OREANDA-NEWS. November 25, 2013. Deputy Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) Alexander Kinev, and Deputy Head of the FAS Department for Control over the Authorities, Andrey Kuznetsov, went to a working visit to Samara OFAS Russia.

Representatives of the Central Office discussed anti-cartel enforcement practice illustrated with cases investigated by FAS, including a case on catching and selling Pollack, a cartel on the market of supplies of swai from Vietnam, a collusion in the course of the auctions organized by Rosrybolovstvo to conclude contracts for allocating the quotas for harvesting biological water resources.

Alexander Kinev pointed out that the federal authorities give considerable attention to developing competition. He emphasized the importance of improving the antimonopoly law under the framework of fulfilling the recommendations given by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and enforcing the Road Map for Developing Competition.

Deputy Head of FAS discussed with the colleagues the amendments to Article 140 of the Criminal Procedural Code initiated by the antimonopoly authority (the reasons and the grounds for initiating criminal cases) on a possibility to initiate cases under Article 178 of the Criminal Code (preventing, restricting or eliminating competition) only upon examining FAS materials. He also talked about changes to the Code on Administrative Violations proposed by FAS in the part of tightening sanctions for coordinating economic activities and introducing the grounds for reducing turnover fines if a violator cooperates with an antimonopoly body.

At the meeting FAS representatives also discussed the issues of coopertation between FAS regional offices and the law enforcement bodies. “As a result of established active joint efforts on investigating antimonopoly cases the body of evidence is strengthened and the significance of cases increases”, pointed out Deputy Head of FAS.

Concluding the meeting, Alexander Kinev wished fruitful work to the officers of Samara OFAS Russia and positive experience of case investigation.