OREANDA-NEWS.  October 02, 2014. The Head of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia) Igor Artemiev addressed a briefing of the European Business Association (EBA) on important practice and areas of developing the antimonopoly law.

Igor Artemiev informed the briefing participants about the novelties of the “forth antimonopoly package” that at the moment is being approved by the State Duma, particular, on the system of preventative control. He pointed out that the major transformation is that prior to initiating a case FAS shall send a warning and added that 75% warnings under certain pilot Articles of the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”, for which this mechanism is already introduced, are executed.

The Head of the antimonopoly authority proposed to EBA experts to jointly refine the wording on introducing the powers of the Government of the Russian Federation to approve the Rules of non-discriminatory access to the goods on highly-concentrated markets if such markets suffer from violations of the antimonopoly law. He emphasized that this provision concerns only the risks similar to the so-called “Pikalyovo” syndrome*.

Igor Artemiev pointed out that the Code of Conduct of Car Manufacturers and Dealers, drafted together with EBA, is the most correct and efficient method of industry self-regulation, and added that the same document must be drafted for the pharmaceutical market. This proposal of the antimonopoly authority was supported by representatives of the antimonopoly bodies of a number of BRICS countries in September 2014.

Discussing international relations, the Head of FAS emphasized that the antimonopoly bodies are analyzing the markets of food products, grain, oil products and air fare within the member-states of the Customs Union as well as in Armenia and Kirgizia.

Igor Artemiev drew participants’ attention to FAS plans to optimize procurement activities of state-run companies and summarizing the best practices in this field. Robust efforts are being undertaken to devise a procurement standard for state-run companies.

*At the end of 2008, Pikalyovo Alumina Refinery Plant, located in a single-industry town - Pikalyovo, the Leningrad region, terminated operations due to interrupted supplies of raw materials by “Apatit” OJSC. Then, “Pikalyuovo Cement” and “Metakhim”, that form the same complex with Pikalyovo Alumina Refinery Plant and depend on alumina output, also stopped their production.