OREANDA-NEWS. June 09, 2014. A meeting of the Council of the Heads of the CIS Governments took place on 30th May 2014, in Minsk, the Republic of Belarus. The Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia), Anatoly Golomolzin, presented a report “On Activities of the Interstate Council on the Antimonopoly Policy (ICAP)”.

“Analyzing the work of the Council for the past years, it is safe to say that the main objectives of its formation are achieved: the antimonopoly law in general is harmonized in the CIS space, it is oriented towards the best world practices, and there is continuous exchange of experience in legislation as well as enforcement”, emphasized the speaker.

ICAP formed the Coordination Council on Advertising that in 2013 celebrated the 10-year anniversary of successful work. ICAP also used to have an Advisory Council on Consumer Rights Protection that in 2011 started operating as a separate body of departmental cooperation.

According to Deputy of FAS, “in 20 years ICAP has established cooperation with several departmental bodies, international organizations as well as foreign competition authorities. Agreements on Cooperation are concluded with the competition authorities of Austria, Korea, Latvia, Romania, the Interstate Aviation Committee, Non-Profit Partnership for Competition Support in the CIS and the Eurasian Economic Commission”.

One of the key areas of ICAP work in the recent years has been development of cooperation between the antimonopoly authorities under the framework of the Headquarters for joint investigations of violations of the antimonopoly law, the Head of which is Anatoly Golomolzin. The Headquarters was formed in 2006 by a decision of ICAP members. The Headquarters focuses its activities on investigations and analysis of socially important markets such as food products, retail, etc., and on the markets, on which the conditions of economic cooperation between the CIS states depend.

“All reports drafted on the basis of the Headquarters’ efforts were considered and approved at the session of the Council of the Heads of the CIS Governments. To execute the orders issued by the Council, the situation in the economy of our countries was improved. The outcome of the effect-oriented work shows how high is the potential for strengthening economic cooperation within the CIS space”, said Anatoly Golomolzin. “For instance, thanks to the efforts of ICAP and the Headquarters jointly with the Aviation Council and the Interstate Aviation Committee exercised measures towards developing competition on the market of air transportation. In particular, the number of city pairs and appointed carriers between our countries increased, and administrative and economic barriers are removed. The antimonopoly bodies adopted the best experience of investigating cases on violating the antimonopoly law by monopolists supplying goods and services (aviation fuel, services of refueling complexes airport services, etc.) Due to the adopted measures, air traffic increased by more than twofold. Other countries and regional inter-state associations do not know such high rates of air transportation growth”.

Another example of the efforts of ICAP and the Headquarters is the tariffs for communications in international roaming that started going down as a result of joint investigation of antimonopoly cases. Antimonopoly bodies in Russia and Kazakhstan simultaneously initiated cases upon elements of violating the antimonopoly law and issued decisions. A little bit later antimonopoly investigations took place in other CIS countries. As a result, the rates for some services (voice telephony, SMS-messages, access to the Internet) reduced by 1.5 - 4 times and accordingly the traffic increased by 2-4 times.

“If initially tariff decreased due to the pressure from the antimonopoly bodies, further reduction was exercised by the operators themselves. They began to understand that it is possible to earn profit by increasing the traffic rather than the tariffs. As a result, subscribers’ loyalty increased. At the start of investigations in 2010 only every forth subscriber travelling abroad used roaming communications services; now two out of three subscribers use roaming during their trips. We continue work in this direction jointly with the Regional Telecommunications Union”, informed the speaker.

The Headquarters and ICAP focus not only on the CIS markets but also on the global markets. In June 2014, CIS Economic Council will discuss a Report on the state of competition and pricing on the oil products markets. The Report is the result of the efforts of the International Working Group on Oil, formed upon an initiative of FAS and Austria’s competition authority. Representatives of 20 countries took part in the Working Group: the antimonopoly bodies of the CIS states and representatives of Austria, Portugal, Germany, the USA and other countries.

Currently the Headquarters jointly with the International Working Group, formed upon an initiative of FAS and Italy’s competition authority, are completing a Report on pharmaceutical markets. Along with representatives of the antimonopoly authorities of the CIS and several western countries, such countries as India take part in the activities of the Working Group. The outcome of such work will be measures towards market development, expanding the range of medicines and increasing their availability.

In conclusion, Anatoly Golomolzin pointed out: “We work in close contact with CIS Executive Committee at all stages, particularly, under the framework of the Headquarters and ICAP meetings, and in report drafting”.

The Interstate Council on Antimonopoly Policy (ICAP) is a body of departmental cooperation within the CIS formed in 1993 under the Agreement on Concerted Antimonopoly Policy. In 2013 the Council markets its 20-year anniversary.