OREANDA-NEWS. October 20, 2014. The Head of the Analytical Department of the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS Russia), Alexei Sushkevich, and Deputy Head of FAS Legal Department, Denis Gavrilov, took part in a session on “Antimonopoly Regulation of Distribution in Russia”.

The session discussed the most controversial issues on antimonopoly enforcement with regard to goods distribution.

Denis Gavrilov discussed vertical agreements between producers and distributors. “Unlike combating cartels, antimonopoly regulation of vertical agreements is built on the rule of reason in assessment of the conditions of cooperation between producers and distributors. Such assessment, in particular, requires analysis of the market shares of the parties to an agreement on the market of the goods, with regard to which is was concluded, determining probability of adverse consequences for competition”, pointed out Denis Gavrilov.

He also discussed vertical restrictions on in relations between sellers and distributors under the agreements. “The main restrictions are divided into intra-brand and inter-brand and comprise restricting resale prices, exclusivity for sellers or buyers, regional barriers that to a certain extent are related to rejecting competition on a particular market”, said Deputy Head of FAS Legal Department. Denis Gavrilov also put forward the criteria for determining allowability of such restrictions.

Discussing forthcoming changes to the antimonopoly law, the Head of FAS Analytical Department, Alexei Sushkevich, stated that adopting the so-called “forth antimonopoly package” considerably increases the significance of economic analysis in the cases on violating the Federal Law “On Protection of Competition”.

Concluding the session, representatives of FAS and business community discussed the short-term action plan of the antimonopoly authority and emphasized the enormous importance of adopting the “third antimonopoly law” in 2012 for the Russian Federation.