OREANDA-NEWS. March 18, 2014. Deputy Head of FAS, Alexander Kinev, discussed some pressing anti-cartel issues at an extended Collegium of the Federal Antimonopoly Service.

Starting his speech, Alexander Kinev pointed out that combating cartels remains one of FAS priorities.

He stated that “at the moment certain results are achieved in this area. We have been able to build up the legislative system, introduce special instruments and establish enforcement practice”.

Discussing FAS anti-cartel objectives, Alexander Kinev highlighted the need to strengthen cooperation with the law enforcement bodies to hold cartel participants criminally liable, increase the impact of the decisions and determinations issued by the antimonopoly body upon economic performance and consolidate international cooperation in the global sectors of the economy.

He summed up that “unfortunately, nowadays criminal liability for cartels is declared but not enforced. We see that every year FAS makes dozens of decisions on cartel cases, imposes fines running into billions, and sends dozens of statements to the Ministry of Interior on violations to initiate criminal cases under Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Nevertheless, in spite of our efforts, statistical data on criminal cases is within statistical error”.

In view of Alexander Kinev, a possible solution to the problem can be to assign FAS the powers of an investigative body.

He stated that “it will enable FAS to carry out pre-investigation checks, open criminal cases, undertake urgent actions to register evidence and transfer materials of criminal cases to investigative authorities. It is necessary because today the principle of unavoidability of punishment does not work”.

The second important issue, according to Alexander Kinev, is the established practice of appealing decisions.

“It appears that it is always beneficial for the violators to challenge the decisions of the antimonopoly body. Even if a case is lost at Court, they are able to delay executing determinations, paying fines and other adverse circumstances.

Moreover, throughout judicial proceedings violators have the right to continue violating the antimonopoly law, because FAS has not yet proved their violations”, pointed out Alexander Kinev. “It must be possible to challenge a decision of the antimonopoly body only upon its execution”.

Deputy Head of FAS also drew attention of the audience to the issues of holding foreign persons administratively liable.

“Today when the antimonopoly body exposes a cartel concluded by foreign companies outside the Russian Federation, FAS cannot hold them liable”, emphasized Alexander Kinev. “The situation can be corrected by expanding Article 14.32 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Violations to foreign legal entities and their officials if an anticompetitive agreement concluded outside the Russian Federation influences competition inside Russia”.

In conclusion, Alexander Kinev reminded that FAS is in favour of drafting and adopting an International Anti-Cartel Convention to establish the common principles of cartel sanctions and the rules for cooperation between the bodies authorized to combat cartels.