OREANDA-NEWS. December 10, 2013. Deputy Head of FAS Alexander Kinev, the Head of FAS Legal Department Sergey Puzurevsky and Deputy Head of FAS Legal Department Denis Gavrilov took part in the V International Research-to-Practice Conference – “Kutafin Readings”, the Section on “Trends of Competition Law Development in Russia”.

The Conference was organized during the III Moscow Law Week. Participants included the President of “Corporate Lawyers Association” Non-Commercial Partnership, Alexandra Nesterenko; an expert of the Directorate General on Competition of the European Commission, Dragomir Iliev; representatives of Kutafin Moscow State University of Law (MSLA), Lomonosov Moscow State University, “Skolkovo” Foundation; and the leading law firms.

MSLA Vice-Principal for Research gave a welcoming address, Vladimir Sinyukov, appraising contribution of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) in development of competition law and competition in general. He pointed out that a new legal framework infrastructure is establishing and sometimes there are issues that require joint solutions. Vladimir Sinyukov emphasized that creating Competition Law Department in MSLA has a direct influence upon the system of Russian law, as well as developing legal culture of competition protection.

Sergey Puzurevsky discussed specifics of competition law in Russia and foreign experience as well as trends in the antimonopoly law.

“An integral system of antimonopoly regulation has established in Russia. We see the results of 20-year efforts that bore fruit in a sense that companies know about the rules for behavior on markets. Quality training of specialists should have a considerable impact upon developing legal culture in the field of competition. I see here the major task of Competition Law Department in MSLA that I chair”, pointed out the Head of FAS Legal Department Sergey Puzurevsky.

Deputy Head of FAS Alexander Kinev quoted statistical data on violations of the antimonopoly law by the authorities. Discussing the reasons facilitating anticompetitive intervention of the authorities in economic performance, Alexander Kinev described such a phenomenon as “economic memory” on centralized planning and pricing and a habit to employ the administrative resource in resolving economic management issues.

“Protection and development of competition is a federal issue”, commented Deputy Head of FAS Alexander Kinev.

Dragomir Iliev, a representative of the Directorate General on Competition of the European Commission, shared experience of cartel investigations, the procedures for imposing fines and out-of-court settlements, and on cooperation between competition authorities.

The key speaker at a special session on approaches to antimonopoly enforcement with regard to intellectual rights was Deputy Head of FAS Legal Department, a lecturer at the Competition Law Department in MSLA, Denis Gavrilov. He discussed the best practices of antimonopoly enforcement in the field of intellectual rights using examples of the USA, Japan and the European Union, and denoted special OECD recommendations and a special agreement under the WTO framework (the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights - TRIPS).

“Expanding the antimonopoly standards to intellectual property is a trend in the best practices of antimonopoly regulation in the leading countries that must be adopted and developed. The task is set in the “Road Map” for developing competition. FAS drafted a law that established a balance between legislative framework of legal protection of exclusive rights and prohibition to abuse intellectual rights for the purposes of unreasonable and unfair restriction of competition”, emphasized Deputy Head of FAS Legal Department Denis Gavrilov.

Director for Legal Policy and Developing Public Relations, “Skolkovo” Foundation, Andrey Ivanov, stated that innovative technology environment is a subject of antimonopoly regulation in all leading countries of the world, and creating such a possibility for competition enforcement shall facilitate development of small and medium business, implementing innovations on the bases of “Skolkovo”.

Presentations were also made by members of “Promoting Competition” Non-Commercial Partnership, Nikolai Voznesensky and Grigory Chernyshov. Experts emphasized the importance of discussing the role of the antimonopoly law in intellectual property and proposed various approaches.

The conference participants stated that such kind of discussions would encourage development of competition law.