OREANDA-NEWS. June 23, 2014. Many international companies operating in their domestic markets comply with the globally established rules and standards but forget about them doing business in other countries. FAS proposes to extrapolate positive experience of adopting the best world practices within various integration associations, such as the Common Economic Space, BRICS, OECD.

The Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia), Igor Artemiev, discussed the issue with participants of the session on “Developing Competition Policy under the Framework of Integration Associations” on 19th June 2014 at the IV International Legal Forum in St Petersburg.

FAS objective is to change production relations through their pro-competitive development. “There are two traditional methods of achieving this: first, by changing normative legal regulation and subsequent enforcement, and the second - through joint conduct of regulators with regard to the best world practices”, pointed out Igor Artemiev.

As an example of effective implementation of the best practices in Russia, the Head of the antimonopoly authority mentioned adopting the Code of Conduct of Car Manufacturers and Distributors on the markets of new cars and spare parts to them. Until then, the markets of sales and after-sale services was characterized by high entry barriers, infringements of the interests of economic entities, restricted competition, excessive costs of dealer and support services deteriorated quality of services as well as decreased consumer demand and sales market decline. Jointly with the European Business Association (EBA), FAS drafted the Code of Conduct of Car Manufacturers and Distributors, which established transparent and non-discriminatory rules of cooperating with dealers and independent services stations on the market, similar to the European rules.

To efficiently implement the best global practices, results-oriented cooperation of all competition authorities on the global market is necessary. “We would like to propose that pharmaceutical sector can be an object of BRICS joint efforts on analyzing good and bad practices. Based on the best standards of international organizations and practices, companies shall voluntarily adopt pro-competitive agreements and the antimonopoly bodies start monitoring the situation”, stated the Head of FAS.

Russian antimonopoly authority has experience on drafting “framework conditions” for business, for instance, the best practices were implemented through the Headquarters on Joint Investigations at the Interstate Council on Antimonopoly Policy (ICAP) on such markets as air transportation, telecommunications, food products, pharmaceuticals, grain, oil and oil products, electric power.

Reference:

Deputy Commissioner, the Competition Commission of South Africa, Oliver Josie; the Chairman of the Agency of the Republic of Kazakhstan for Competition Protection, Galym Orazbakov; the Chairman of the State Commission of the Republic of Armenia for Protection of Economic Competition, Artak Saboyan; a Judge of US Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, Douglas Ginsburg; and Director, Centre for Law, Economics and Society, University College of London, Lianos Ioannis also took part in the session.